Dance of Love
by Morningdew-1
Summary: Watching the love of his life marry another man breaks Clark Kent's heart until Celeste McPherson accidently stumbles into his life and the Man of Steel stunned realizes that the Australian ballet dancer takes his breath away faster than a speeding bullet
1. Superman Returns

**Dance of Love**

_What happens, when Lois Lane makes the decision to marry Richard White? How can the people involved cope with this fact? Most of all Clark Kent/Superman? This will be his journey to find himself, but also a chance for him to find his true love..._

**Hi it's me the author :). **** This is my first fanfiction in Englisch so please be kind if sometimes the spelling and grammar isn't right. **

**The story is an alternate universe sequel to Superman Returns. **

**And these are the things you should know before you start to read:**

**After five years****, Superman, having failed in his hopes to find surviving Kryptonians, returns to Earth and resumes his job as Clark Kent at the Daily Planet in Metropolis. He subsequently learns that Lois Lane has won the Pulitzer Prize for her article "Why the World Doesn't Need Superman." Meanwhile, Luthor travels to the Fortress of Solitude and steals the Kryptonian crystals, which he plans to use for an experiment. **

**The world rejoices at Superman's return, but the Man of Steel has difficulties in coping with Lois' fiancé, Richard White, and their son, Jason. Perry assigns Lois to interview Superman, which she does. But Lois isn't able to suppress her frustration about him leaving earth without saying goodbye to her. When Clark sees Jason while chasing a story together with Lois and Richard, the little boy realizes that Clark Kent and Supermen are the same person. On the following day, Lois and Jason inadvertently board Luthor's ship and are captured. While Lois attempts to escape, she is attacked by a henchman. He is crushed to death by a piano, which Jason shoves into him, thus revealing that the boy is Superman's son, and not Richard's. Superman soon arrives to help Lois and Jason to escape the ship. After Superman takes Lois and Jason back into their home, Lois tells him and Jason that he is the father of the five-year old boy. **

**A/N: In this fanfiction both of Clark's parents are still alive and the New-Krypton incident hasn't happened.**

**Disclaimer:**** This fanfiction is based on Superman I, Superman II (Lester and Donner), Superman Returns, Lois and Clark the new Adventures of Superman, and Smallville. Superman and the characters related are property of Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster, DC Comics, and Warner Bros. They are not mine. The Australian and Swedish gang, however, are mine. Believe me they are a hand full, even for our famous hero…**

**A very special thanks goes to my lovely betas sparkling-stone and dragon166 for their constructive criticism, comments and suggestions. You are my heroes ladies!**

**And now, enjoy the fun ride…**


	2. Prologue

**Prologue**

_Went from the east to west_

_With stories to erase_

_From my heart, my fingers and my face_

_I've tried my very best_

_No matter wherever I am_

_There's nothing I can do_

_Cause my love has only one name_

_And it is you_

_I believe that some things are destined_

_They're meant to happen_

_I believe that my heart had chosen_

_The one in a million_

_I've opened all doors and all access_

_For you to get into_

_Now this heart is cold and it's homeless_

_Because of you_

_Memories forced me to remember_

_To safe love from anger_

_I can't stop myself but to wonder_

_Wished I had been better_

_Counting the time that I've wasted_

_Over someone new_

_Cause one thing that I ever wanted_

_Is only you_

_It's only a matter of time_

_I know soon I will find_

_That feeling so close to divine_

_Someone I can call mine_

_But silence is pounding in my head_

_Hit me through and through_

_What everything fails to forget_

_Is always you _

_**Schiller mit Anggun: Always You**_


	3. Chapter 1

**1.**

The wedding music started to play. Clark raised his head and concentrated his vision on the entrance of the church.

There she was, the most beautiful being in the entire world. The love of his live. The mother of his son. Lois Lane.

Since he had known her, she had never looked so happy as she did then. Her champagne colored wedding dress wafted through the air while her father, General Sam Lane, walked her down the aisle.

Clark felt as if his heart would be ripped into two pieces. He turned around and looked to Richard White, Perry White's nephew, the bridegroom, who waited in front of the altar for his bride.

Richard nervously shifted his weight from one foot to the other while he grinned like a little boy.

Clark turned back to watch Lois approaching them. A single tear ran down his cheek. This was it. The point of no return. Lois Lane was about to marry Richard White.

With a sigh Clark tried to wipe away the tear as inconspicuously as possible when he suddenly felt a small hand touching and squeezing his own. For a second he closed his eyes and turned to Jason. The boy looked up to his biological father and gave him a reassuring smile.

Clark sighed a second time when Lois and her father were finally standing in front of them.

The beautiful bride took Richard's hand and both of them smiled at each other.

The reverent started to speak to the bridal couple while Clark absently watched the ceremony.

His eyes were glued on Lois. She looked so beautiful. Her dark brown hair was in a nice up-do. Some champagne colored roses embellished it. And she smiled.

Stunned, Clark realized that for the first time in six years he saw her perfectly happy.

During the ceremony Richard held Lois's hands. He was deeply in love with his soon to be wife.

Clark sighed, and as he did, he let go of his denial and it finally hit him like a truck. Lois was about to marry another man. But not just _any_ other man.

Richard was the human equivalent to Superman. Careful, nice, friendly, very helpful, and ironically one of the best pilots Clark had ever met. The odd thing was, Clark even liked him. He had taken care of Jason while he was absent for five years searching for the remains of Krypton. Richard loved the son of Superman like he was his own child, and this was far more than Clark could ask for.

Turning back to look into Jason's eyes, Clark managed to form a little smile. This was the best solution for his son. Lois had decided to marry Richard as she was deeply in love with him. Now, nobody would ever suspect Jason was the son of a freaking alien.

Clark shook his head. _Get your act together_, he thought while watching Lois and Richard exchanging their wedding rings and sealing the new bond with a passionate kiss.

At the wedding party a couple of hours later, Clark was located at the table of the newly-weds, sitting next to Jason.

During the dinner, Clark glanced through the room and saw his parents. They nodded reassuringly in his direction. This calmed him down a bit and he was more than relieved that they both were present to support him.

When he heard the sound of a spoon tapping on a glass, he knew it was time for the speech. Slowly he rose from his seat.

Lois had talked him into to be the best man and he hadn't had the guts to say no. Moreover, Lois would have been suspicious if he had turned down her request to do this for her.

He sighed. It had taken him almost a day to come up with this speech.

"Ladies and Gentleman," he started while adjusting his glasses. "Lois. Richard. My name is Clark Kent, and I am their best man. I am pleased to see that my partner at the Daily Planet has found such an honorable man to spend her life with. You deserve it sweetheart."

He smiled wistfully. Lois blushed at his statement, as this was the pet name he had for her when they argued over a lead of a story.

Clark smirked and continued while he held up his champagne glass.

"I wish you all the best for your future. May Richard be the man of your dreams and the love of your life. And Lois please do not snatch his last nerve."

The guests started to laugh loudly about this, as they all knew about 'Mad-Dog Lane' and cheered for the newly-weds while Clark felt his knees becoming dangerously wobbly. He sat down as General Sam Lane began to speak.

For the second time that day, Clark felt the much smaller hand of his son in his'.

Jason looked his father directly into his eyes and smiled proudly.

A couple of hours later, Clark had serious difficulties to stay in the same room with Lois. She had asked him for a dance, to which he had reluctantly agreed. To feel her close to him again had cost him all of his will power to not break down.

After only a minute of dancing a waltz with Lois, he could not bear to be close to her anymore.

Absolutely distraught, Clark ran out of the room and onto the porch of the mansion where they were celebrating the wedding. He didn't even turn back to look at her.

Outside, the air was refreshing. He loosened his bow tie as well as the upper buttons of his dress shirt while panting in order to get some air.

The sight from this spot was breath taking. He could see all of Metropolis. The different lights of the never sleeping city reflected on the lake, just beneath the porch he was standing on.

When Lois stepped next to him he nearly had a heart attack.

"Nice isn't it?" she asked and glanced into his eyes.

He turned around and sighed. "It's spectacular."

"Clark?"

He turned back and looked into her hazel eyes. "Yes?"

"Why did you run away just now?"

"I... I was feeling a bit dizzy. Must be the alcohol," he answered while trying to press out a smile.

Lois nodded. This answer obviously satisfied her.

"Thank you for your speech earlier. I really hope you will also find the love of your life one day," she said to him while brushing a hand over his cheek.

Shocked he looked into her eyes_. You are the love of my life!,_ every fibre of his being shouted.

But he did not say anything, instead he turned back to look at the thousand lights reflecting on the lake. It was hopeless. He had lost her to another man. Forever and irreversibly.

Suddenly Lois seemed to be nervous. She started to bite on her thumb. A sign that she was indeed _very_ nervous.

"I would like to ask you for a favor," she began to speak and the man next to her nodded.

"Could you please take care of Jason for a couple of days while Richard and I are on our honeymoon?"

Clark looked terrified. "W-what?", he asked, not sure if he had heard her right.

"Please," Lois begged. "We wanted to take Jason with us, but he insisted that he wants to stay in Metropolis." She smiled. "He said he can't stand us lovebirds for a week."

Disbelievingly Clark glanced at her.

_She did not just ask me that_, he thought.

"W-well... If this is okay for you, I am more than happy to look after Jason till you both are back. But why don't you ask your mother or Lucy?"

Lois was already leaving to go get her son.

"Because he made us promise that he is allowed to spend time with you, uncle Clark!"

Open-mouthed, he watched Lois vanish into the mansion.

After more than a minute he started to smile. Jason wanted to make sure he was all right while his mother and Richard were away having fun.

Just by the thought of it, Clark started to shiver and felt very sick. To get the thought of Richard and Lois making love out of his head, he stepped into the house.

If he had to take care for Jason for a week he needed to make arrangements with his parents to look after his son when he was on his duties as Superman.


	4. Chapter 2

**A/N: Sparkling-stone, athenesolon, and Kairan1979, thank you very much for reviewing.**

**A special thanks goes to my beta Smile Life Away :)**

**2.**

Martha and Johnathan, before entering Gate A, where their plane waited to take them back to Smallville, waved their son and grandson a warm goodbye.

After they were out of sight, Clark grabbed Jason's hand and smiled.

"Are you ready for some ice cream?"

His son looked at him, shaking his head.

"What happened? You_ love_ ice cream!" Clark asked concerned.

Jason shrugged and looked up to him with tears in his eyes.

"Not today," he replied with another shrug.

All of the alarm bells in Clark's head went off. He kneeled on the floor to look straight into his son's eyes.

Jason, trying to avoid his father's gaze, turned into another direction.

To get his attention back, Clark grabbed him on his shoulders and turned him back, so Jason was facing him again.

The six-year old boy jumped a bit when Clark spoke with his low and authoritarian Superman voice:

"Tell me what's bothering you, this instant!"

Out of the blue Jason started sobbing.

When he looked into Clark's eyes again the man from Krypton could see thick tears running down the boy's cheeks. Stunned, Clark sat on his heels and embraced his son.

Jason jumped straight into his lap and started to cry even harder. Instinctively, Clark started to rock him in an attempt to soothe him.

After about what seemed to be a lifetime, Jason looked up at his father, and started to speak.

"I'm scared," he finally admitted.

Clark brought both of his hands onto his son's cheeks and wiped away the tears with his thumbs.

"Why?" he asked softly.

It took the little boy another five minutes to be ready to speak again.

"Because mom and Richard will come back in a couple of hours, and than I'm not allowed to see you anymore," he explained his fears, starting to cry again. Terrified by the sheer thought of it.

"What makes you think that?" Clark asked him puzzled.

"Because."

Determined Clark looked into his son's eyes.

"Jason, I will always be here for you, your mother, and Richard. I love you and your mother and believe it or not, I even like Richard."

He couldn't believe his own words, but even though he saw Richard as a rival, he didn't hate him.

"Superman, your mother and Richard had a long converstation about you," he continued. "Your mother insisted it happen before she and Richard got married. She wanted your daddy to know that you are not his child."

He shrugged by the thought of the most awkward converstaion he had ever had in his entire live.

Richard was shocked at first when Superman and Lois told him that Jason was the son of the Man of Steel.

Clark could not blame him for his reaction, but than the soon to be husband of Lois had just taken her into his arms and promised her and Superman to be by their side. He had also agreed to support Superman if Jason would start to develop some extraterrestial abilities.

On that evening Clark really admired Richard. This man had filled in the gap he had left, when he was away searching for the ramains of Krypton. Richard had supported Lois and Jason without a second thought. He was just there for them. There was no way Superman could ever be angry with the husband of Lois after what he had done for her and her son.

He told all of this to Jason. And after another ten minutes the boy started to relax in his father's arms.

"Will you still come and watch me when I'm asleep?" Jason asked anxiously.

Superman had starded to visit Jason after Lois had told him that the boy was his son, and Jason loved that his biological father tried to come almost every night to make sure he was okay.

"I'm sorry," Clark answered. "I think this would not be the right thing to do. Your daddy and Lois are married now."

His heart broke in two parts after he had spoken. Until now it hadn't occured to him, that it would be very inappropriate to continue visiting Jason, to watch him sleep, while Richard and Lois were in the room next to him.

He could not prevent the single tear running down his cheek.

Meanwhile, Jason started to sob again. Clark put his chin on the head of the boy and let his mind drift into his thoughts, trying to find a way to fix things.


	5. Chapter 3

**3.**

"Dad?," Jason asked, waving with his hands in front of his father, trying to snatch him out of his thoughts.

It took Clark another full minute to realise that Jason had stopped crying.

His son was still sitting in his lap and smiling at him.

"Didn't you hear me?'

"What? No. What's up?" Clark asked happier than he had been a few minutes ago.

"I asked you why the lady down there is wearing a summer dress in the middle of winter."

Curiously, Clark looked up.

It was not hard to locate the young woman. She stood out of all the other people, simply because she was wearing a flowery summer dress amidst a crowd of warmly dressed others.

Noticing Clark's stare, she turned to look at him and Jason with her head tilted to the left side.

"Miss..."

The airline personnel who had approached her only caused the woman deep anguish, and she, blowing a loose strand of hair out of her face, rolled her eyes and began to argue with her.

Celeste McPherson was more than cranky.

Not only because her boss, chief choreographer Jason Green, had send her to the United States in the middle of the winter, but also because her whole luggage had gone missing somewhere between Sydney and Metropolis and all her personal belongings with it. Including her winter clothes and most important, her lucky ballet shoes had gone with it. And now her travel time had exceeded the thirty hour mark, she was determined to find somebody to blame.

"I want to talk to your boss, the boss of your boss and the CEO of this company. _All _of my my belongings are lost. I have nothing. Not even appropriate winter clothes," she realised furiously.

The lady on the desk just shrugged.

"Ma'am, I can't help you right now. Like I said before. We presume that your luggage went missing on your stop-over in Honolulu. I am sorry for this inconvenience, but there is nothing we can do right now, except waiting."

Celeste was speechless.

"And what am I supposed to do now?" she asked.

"Check in into your hotel and wait until we have found your luggage. I would also suggest to take a nice hot shower."

Again Celeste rolled her eyes.

"Thank you very much," she said to the lady at the helpdesk, sarcasm pouring out of her mouth. And once she was out of hearing distance, she added: "Stupid bitch," not knowing that all of her conversation had been overheard by Clark.

He started to laugh.

Here was this women, apparently from Australia, judging by her accent, in a light summer dress, who'd lost her luggage on the way to Metropolis and all she could do was call the lady at the help desk a bitch.

Although, he could totally understand her.

Wondering if he should write an article about the impertinence of the airline employee to not even call a cab or to organise a proper winter jacket for the poor Australian woman, he sweeped Jason into his arms, and followed her to the taxi stands located about 100m outsite of the airport.

He was fairly sure she would be an ice block by the time she reached the cab.

Outside he saw her jumping from one foot to the other with her arms wrapped around her body to keep herself as warm as possible.

"Dad, I think she's really cold," Jason realised while he looked at the woman, concern etched in his young face.

"I know," Clark agreed, putting his son back on his feet and slipping out of his coat.

Slowly he walked to the woman, and put the coat gently over her shoulders.

Puzzled, she looked up at the man who just had given her his winter coat. He smiled and pointed to his son.

"He thought you might be cold."

Celeste could not help but smile. The boy was the cutest thing she had ever seen, as was his dad. Blushing, she thanked them both.

However, after about a minute she removed the coat and gave it back to its owner.

Clark didn't understand.

"Thank you very much for your help, but I have to go now," she explained.

"You can keep it," Jason said a bit too quickly. "My uncle won't mind. Will you?" he asked while looking up to his father.

Clark had asked Jason to call him uncle when they were in the public or at home with his mother and Richard.

The tall man shrugged.

"No, not at all."

Celeste was more than stunned.

She could have sworn the boy was the man's son. Moreover, he was willing to give her his coat whilst he only wore a light sweater. She could not accept this offer.

"No. I really can't. Thank you again," she insisted.

"Don't worry, my uncle is pretty okay in the cold," Jason explained with a wide grin.

Celeste considered what she ought to do for a few seconds. She was much too cold to refuse the coat.

Clark helped her back in it, and she felt much better.

"How can I give it back?" she asked.

Clark grasped in his shirt pocket, which was located under his sweater, and gave her his business card.

"Just call me when you have organised some winter clothes," he smirked.

"Thank you!" she said and looked into his deep-blue eyes, while a cab came to a stop next to her.

She climbed into it and Jason pulled on his father's slacks.

"She's very nice," he stated while looking up at his dad with the widest grin Clark has ever seen on his face.

"I know.", Clark replied absently while he watched the cab vanish into the heavy traffic.


	6. Chapter 4

**A/N: Are you ready for another new character in the mix?**

**Note for my reviewers:**

**Athenesolon: **This chapter is save to read. I promise ;)

**Dragon166: **The new character somehow looks just like MStJ. Don't know how this happened :o)

**Arvanya: **Wow. Thank you so much for you lovely review.

**A special thanks goes to my betas Smile Life Away and tubazrcool. **

**4.**

The sunrays danced in all shapes and colours in the room. Slowly, Celeste opened her eyes. For a moment she didn't know where she was. Confused, she sat up and looked around_. Of course. She was in Metropolis!_

Excited, she jumped out of the bed and walked to the window. There she was amazed by the breathtaking view. Next to the hotel was a park, and on the other side of the park she could see the skyline of Metropolis and all was covered in snow revealing the most beautiful sight Celeste had ever seen.

_Snow_, she thought. She had never seen _real_ snow before! Even more excited, she turned around and grabbed her laptop to connect it with the provided Internet connection line. After checking her emails, she logged on to Skype.

_Maybe Mathieu is online_, she thought and checked the time. He was probably already asleep. It was 2am in Sydney. Frustrated, she recognised that his icon was a grey cross, a sign that he wasn't online.

Celeste decided to take a shower first, and then to go and find some winter clothes. On the way to the bathroom she realised that she still wore the coat the man at the airport had given to her. Curious,she put her hand in the pocket where she had put his business card and read it.

**Clark Kent. Senior Reporter. Daily Planet.**

Celeste tapped the card a few times on her hand and made the decision to have breakfast first. The room service brought her a continental breakfast and she indulged herself in bacon and eggs. While she was sipping on her hot chocolate, she heard the all too familiar tone of Skype.

Mathieu had written her a message. She jumped to the laptop and read.

[12:19:29] mathieu1980: hello you** -** cutest of all women :)

[12:23:14] mathieu1980: my little ballet angel?

Celeste adored Mathieu. She replied with a wide grin.

[12:43:21] danseuse_de_la_nuit: hello handsome. still awake...?

[12:43:25] danseuse_de_la_nuit: i miss you madly.

[12:43:35] mathieu1980: i miss you too. how was your flight?

[12:43:40] danseuse_de_la_nuit: don't ask. They lost all of my luggage :(

[12:44:48] danseuse_de_la_nuit: how is thomas?

[12:45:18] mathieu1980: he's getting better. the doctors think that he will be able to be discharged from the hospital next week.

[12:46:52] danseuse_de_la_nuit: what a relief. finally.

[12:48:06] mathieu1980: sorry, i just have to make sure my dinner is not burning.

[12:48:28]danseuse_de_la_nuit: at 2am in the morning? What's on the menu?

[12:49:03] mathieu1980: something really hot :-x

[12:50:04] danseuse_de_la_nuit: :P

[12:53:21] danseuse_de_la_nuit: i want to indulge in your hot creation too.

[12:54:44] danseuse_de_la_nuit: (chuckle)

[13:01:08] mathieu1980: it's getting hotter in the kitchen...

[13:01:32] danseuse_de_la_nuit: ;)

[13:02:55] mathieu1980: i try to get rid of all the unnecessary cups and plates... to find some room... and then breathlessly...

[13:03:09] mathieu1980: ... try to rescue the sunday roast (rofl)

[13:03:19] danseuse_de_la_nuit: (chuckle)

[13:04:11] mathieu1980: what about your kitchen?

[13:05:10] danseuse_de_la_nuit: it's very cold in there. ice age to be honest...

[13:05:56] mathieu1980: :( no rooster, cups or breathlessness? a sandwich perhaps?

[13:06:11] danseuse_de_la_nuit: no

[13:06:12] danseuse_de_la_nuit: not even that

[13:06:18] danseuse_de_la_nuit: :(

[13:06:19] mathieu1980: i'm deeply sorry :)

[13:06:27] danseuse_de_la_nuit: thanks

[13:07:00] mathieu1980: well this means do it by yourself. Find a restaurant, quickly (rofl)

[13:07:20] danseuse_de_la_nuit: actually a pretty good idea

[13:07:23] mathieu1980: :P

[13:07:26] danseuse_de_la_nuit: :P

[13:07:40] mathieu1980: and order everything on the menu...

[13:07:42] mathieu1980: up and down over and over again

[13:07:58] mathieu1980: oysters and aspargus

[13:08:02] danseuse_de_la_nuit: :o)

[13:08:59] mathieu1980: celeste, i really miss you

[13:09:16] danseuse_de_la_nuit: i miss you too, honey

[13:09:23] mathieu1980: what's up today, anything exciting?

[13:11:38] danseuse_de_la_nuit: i'm meeting up with Alexander in a couple of hours

[13:11:50] mathieu1980: wonder how he will keep up with you (chuckle)

[13:12:08] danseuse_de_la_nuit: thank you very much for that, you are such a kloz :P

[13:12:19] mathieu1980: (rofl)

[13:12:20] danseuse_de_la_nuit: baby i have to go. it's already 1:12pm and i have to get some winter clothes before i meet up with Alexander

[13:13:16] mathieu1980: no worries sweetheart. have fun. i love you

[13:13:37] danseuse_de_la_nuit: i love you too.

[13:13:39] danseuse_de_la_nuit: when will i see you again?

[13:14:04] mathieu1980: in six weeks

[13:14:21] danseuse_de_la_nuit: really that long? can't wait

[13:15:27] mathieu1980: me too, but for now, go and get something warm to wear

[13:16:59] danseuse_de_la_nuit: okay**,** are you online tomorrow

[13:17:34] mathieu1980: you bet, i need to know everything about this swedish god.

[13:18:54] mathieu1980: :-x (chuckle)

[13:19:08] danseuse_de_la_nuit: (rofl) cu :*

[13:19:34] mathieu1980: cu :*

Mathieu's icon jumped on grey again.

Celeste smiled. She loved their encounters over the internet. Nevertheless, she would had preferred him coming with her to Metropolis. With the smile still on her face she jumped into the bathroom to take a long and very hot shower.

An hour later, Celeste inquired at the reception, where she could buy clothes appropriate for the winter weather in Metropolis. While she was waiting for a cab, she fished her cellphone out of her handbag and dialed the number of Jason Green.

Ten minutes and a couple of attempts later, the choreographer finally picked up his phone.

"Celeste, do you know what time it is here in Australia?" he snapped into the phone.

"I don't care, Jason," the ballet dancer replied snippily. "I have lost my entire luggage and it's freezing here like the South Pole."

"I'm sorry, Celeste," the voice from the other end of the line said, more softly this time. Celeste rolled her eyes.

"When will I meet up with this Alexander Nilson?"

She could hear a rustle and then Jason's voice. "17:00 Metropolis time."

_This is so typical_, Celeste thought while looking at her wrist watch. She only had two hours to get to the Metropolis Dance Theatre.

"Thanks, Jason. Go back to bed," she said sarcastically, and closed her phone to climb into the taxi which had just stopped in next to her.

The taxi took her to the most exclusive apparel store in town, and Celeste spent an hour buying the most expensive winter clothes she'd ever seen on Jason Green's bill.

Then she went back to the hotel where she changed her clothes. The taxidriver, who had waited for her, took her ten minutes later to the building of the Daily Planet.

When they stopped in front of the world's most famous newspaper, Celeste was amazed at the dimensions of the skyscraper. What she found most astonishing was the glistering, golden globe on top of the building.

"Is this all the Daily Planet?" she asked the cab driver while she was looking up.

"Yes, this is the main building. 50 Dollars please," the man asked for his money.

"Could you please wait one more time? I just have to drop off something. It won't take long," the young woman asked.

The cab driver nodded and Celeste walked into the building. At the information desk she asked the receptionist where she could find Clark Kent. He explained to her that she would most likely find him in the main editorial office on the 35th floor.

When the young woman stepped out of the elevator a couple of minutes later, she looked around astonished.

The editors were all very busy. Phones were ringing and fax-machines bleeped. News from all around the world was playing on huge plasma screens. Celeste watched the people working at their computers, printing out papers, or just getting their coffee. Fascinated, she realised how exciting it was to watch how the employees of the world's biggest newspaper put their stories together.

James Olson was just about to try the new lenses for his professional Nikon camera at the other end of the bullpen, when he spotted the most beautiful girl he had ever seen through one of them.

Without hesitation, he took a picture of the graceful young woman and smiled mischievously. Then he looked a second time through his camera. It was then that he realised that the young woman looked very lost between all these people around her.

Determined he walked to her.

"Hi. My name is James Olson. How can I help you?" he introduced himself.

Celeste smiled. The young, blond man was really cute.

"Hi. I wonder if you could tell me where I can find Clark Kent?" she asked.

Jimmy looked at her with his mouth gasping. _Did she really just ask me where to find CK?_, he thought. After a few seconds he snapped back into reality.

"Unfortunately, he isn't here at the moment," he somehow managed to answer after a couple of seconds.

Disappointed the young woman looked at the coat in her arm. She would have loved to see the utterly helpful man again, and to thank him for his help in person.

"Could you please give him back the coat? I would really appreciate it."

She gave the photographer the coat.

"Sure," he said. "Can I take a message for him?"

Celeste smiled. "Could you please tell him thank you for his help?"

"Yes I could do that," Jimmy replied, and the woman said goodbye to the photographer. Then she turned around and walked back into the elevator. Jimmy watched her until the doors were closed.

Lost in his thoughts, he didn't realised Clark showing up just behind him.

"Jimmy, daydreaming at the workplace? Again?" he asked, and smiled.

"CK!" the younger man jumped. "You just missed somebody who wanted to see you."

"Really. Who was it?"

The photographer gave the reporter the coat.

"She dropped this off and asked me to tell you thank you for your help," Jimmy explained.

Clark's smile vanished. "When did you see her?" he asked. Excited.

"A minute ago. You just missed her."

Clark looked into the direction of the elevator. _What a shame that I wasn't here_, he thought. He would have been thrilled to see her again.

"Where did you meet her?" Jimmy asked, while they walked to the reporter's desk.

"This is my personal secret," Clark replied mischievously.

The photographer grabbed his camera.

"Look. I made this," he said. Showing Clark the picture. "Doesn't she look gorgeous with the hat?"

The reporter looked at the screen of the camera, filled with curiosity. Yes, she looked delightful indeed. The red coat she was wearing in the photo perfectly matched her gloves and hat. The silver stickpin in the shape of a sun suited her excellently, and he especially liked her blonde corkscrew curls falling wildly over her shoulders.

"Did she tell you her name?" Clark asked his friend.

Puzzled, Jimmy looked at him. "You seriously don't know her name?" the photographer asked beyond belief.

"Olson. Kent. In my office. Yesterday!" their chief editor yelled through the bullpen.

Clark just shrugged and shook his head. Armed with a notepad and a pen, he and Jimmy walked into the office of Perry White in order to receive their next assignments.


	7. Chapter 5

**A/N: My dear readers. Two scenes from SR with a slight twist in this chapter...**

**Congratulations my real-life Supergirls for passing the exams! I know you will be fantastic in being 'with women' ;)**

**Thank you to my betas Smile Life Away and tubazrcool for putting the chapter into proper English :)**

**5.**

Celeste was totally delighted with her new Swedish dance partner. Alexander Nilson's skills as a ballet dancer were truly professional and world class. After only two hours of rehearsal, they both had put together the steps of the first scene of Jason Green's _Romeo and Juliet_ ballet production.

Their chemistry was mind-blowing and both, Celeste and Alexander, liked each other from the very first meeting.

Celeste also met her supporting dancers and she especially liked Jessie. Jessie was a very lovely and skilled young girl who had grown up in Metropolis.

After they had finished for that day, Jessie offered to escort Celeste to her hotel as they both felt for a walk after the long day of rehearsals.

"You know, Metropolis isn't Sydney. Criminals are everywhere. But it got much better when Superman came back a year ago," Jessie explained to the Australian woman, while they were crossing the street.

"Not walking around on my own? I guess that's something I just have to get used to. Thank you for coming with me," Celeste said sincerely.

"That's okay. So what happened to your Australian ballet partner? I heard that he's one of the best dancers in the world. Alexander told me that he had an accident?"

Celeste sighed. She really missed Thomas.

"Yes, he is still in the hospital recovering."

"How are you holding up?"

"It's hard – very hard – we've been partners for more than two years. But when Jason Green asked me to fly in to Metropolis a week before the production team would arrive to meet up with Alexander, I took the chance. I asked Thomas if he was okay with it, and he said I would be the most stupid girl in the world if I didn't take this offer," Celeste explained.

Jessie nodded.

"He was right. Coming and working in Metropolis really increases your chance for a breakthrough. I saw you dancing, Celeste. _You_ are world class."

The Australian dancer blushed.

"Thank you. But you are pretty good, too."

"I know," Jessie said with a wide grin on her face. "Hey, what do you think about a quick coffee? I know a really good café not far away from here."

"I'd love to," Celeste replied. She was fairly sure that she couldn't sleep anyway due to the jetlag, which was still bothering her.

When they arrived at the café, Celeste was happy to get her hot beverage. She put her hands around the cup, and looked around.

Even though it was in the middle of winter, the people were sitting outside. Big patio heaters prevented them from instantly freezing into ice blocks. Both this town, and its people were strange for the Australian woman.

When she took the first sip, she suddenly heard the squeak of car breaks and then a blue car showed up just in front of them.

Terrified, Celeste dropped the coffee cup. Jessie could only scream. They ducked when the car was just about to roll over them and some of the other visitors in the café.

Celeste closed her eyes and took one of Jessie's hands. Both women trembled of fear. But the car wondrously didn't hit them. Curiously, both women opened their eyes.

In disbelief they could just catch a glimpse of the car flying over them, changing direction midair.

The woman in the car screamed in agony, stating that the breaks weren't working, but felt silent when she realised that the car was indeed flying!

Scared, she looked around when she felt the car touching down on the street, first on the front wheels, and a few seconds later on the back ones.

While she wiped the tears out of her eyes, she looked into the rear-view mirror and was amazed to see _him_.

Superman stood on the back of the car and smiled. Then he walked up to the front door and opened it.

"Are you okay?" He asked the woman behind the steering wheel.

She could only look at him. Speechless. He helped her out of the car when she finally snapped out of her shock, and started to ramble on nervously while she clenched on his suit.

"My heart, my heart is racing."

Superman wasn't sure if he had heard her right. Anxiously, the woman screamed and jumped directly into his arms.

"Please, please take me to a hospital."

Taken by surprise, Superman looked around into the crowd of people who were just standing there -silently-, and watching the scene.

It was apparent on his face that he didn't know what to do but when the woman didn't stop screaming, he asked her to hold on tight and ascended with her.

"Wow, that was impressive." Celeste finally managed to say when they were out of sight, still amazed about what she had just witnessed.

"I've heard about him. I've read about him. I've seen pictures of him, but I have never seen him in-person _that close_ before," Jessie realised with her mouth wide open.

At the hospital, Superman gently put the woman on the floor.

"There we are," he said.

"My heart, my heart. The tremors are gone. What have you done?" she stated excited.

"I... I didn't do anything," he assured her.

The woman touched him on his shoulder. "Please call me Catherine," she demanded.

"Catherine. I am happy you are well again," he said, just about to take flight again.

"You have to go and save other people. Am I right?"

"Yes," the man said and smiled at her. "Good night, Catherine."

"Good night," Catherine replied, and watched him till he was gone.

When she was sure he wasn't around anymore, she looked at her wrist watch and formed an obnoxious grin on her face.

"I hope you got everything you wanted, Lex."

When Clark appeared the next day at the Daily Planet, one of his co-workers instantly yelled at him.

"Finally, Kent. The chief is waiting for you and by the look of it, he isn't very happy."

Clark grabbed his notepad and went to Perry White's office. When he entered, he could hear his chief shouting.

"What is that?" Perry yelled at Lois, Richard, and Jimmy. They were all standing around the chief editor's desk, looking at some pictures.

"Erm... Chief?" Clark enquired.

"Kent, finally. Come in. We have to talk."

The younger reporter approached them and looked at the pictures of Superman rescuing the woman from the car, scattered all over the desk.

Perry continued. "What do you say? They are fantastic!" He pointed to one of them. "A twelve-year-old took them. With his cell phone! And what do we have?"

Jimmy looked at the floor, trying to avoid his chief editor's gaze. Perry sat down on his chair and let out a long sigh.

"Some words to your new assignments. Lois, I expect you to talk to Superman about the incident on the pictures."

"Perry, there are so many other stories to write about," the reporter contradicted.

"For instance?" Perry asked the brunette.

"I would rather write about the museum robbery last night."

Clark turned to Jimmy who was sitting on the armrest of his chair.

"A museum was robbed?" He asked.

Lois went to the picture and put her index finger on it.

"Yes, and even Superman didn't notice it. He was too busy saving this hooker."

Perry stood up and walked to the window to look outside. After a couple of minutes he turned around.

"Lois: Superman."

"But, Chief, what about the museum robbery?" The young reporter asked upset.

"Kent: the robbery in the museum."

Clark wanted to say something. Anything. But Lois was faster.

"Well. Thanks, Chief," she snapped at her boss and walked even more upset out of the office. Richard looked at the other men, shrugged and followed his wife.

While Perry was giving the two remaining reporters in his office instructions, Clark eavesdropped on the conversation between Lois and Richard outside Perry White's office.

"Lois," her husband said when he finally had caught up with her.

The young woman just stopped and started to cry, something that Clark took by surprise as Mad-Dog-Lane never cried, at least not in front of others.

"Perry is shoving _him_ straight back into my life. He just doesn't get it," she said.

Richard hugged her and tried to soothe her.

"I just can't bear to face him at the moment, especially not in these circumstances," she explained.

Her husband put his hand on his wife's cheek.

"But you have to tell him eventually."

The brunette woman nodded and wiped away the remaining tears, while making sure, not to smudge her mascara.

"Sorry, Richard. I'm usually not that emotional."

He kissed her softly on her lips.

"It's fine. I love this side-effect on you. After all, you are having _our_ baby," he said with an obvious emphasis on our, and pulled her into a passionate kiss.

When Clark realised what they were talking about, he turned his head to face them.

With his eyes wide open, he gulped, stood up, and walked out of his chief editor's office.

"Kent. I wasn't finished!" Perry yelled after him, but the younger reporter didn't respond.

Clark ran out of the bullpen and jumped into the elevator. When he reached the rooftop, he walked up to the handrail and clutched on it. His breathing was fast. The whole world was spinning around him. He closed his eyes and shook his head, finally realising the fact that Lois was pregnant with Richard's child!


	8. Chapter 6

**A/N: My dear readers. It's time for an update ****:) **

**Thanks for reviewing athenesolon and Julian Carax ;)**

**A special thanks goes to my betas Smile Life Away and tubazrcool.**

**6.**

Celeste knew it had been a bad idea to walk home alone in the dark after the evening rehearsal, when a group of really bad looking guys showed up in front of her. She blew a lock of hair out of her face.

_Well done Celeste_, she thought. _What part of we are not in Sydney where you can carelessly walk home by yourself, did you not understand_?

"Hey boys, look who we have here." The gangleader said with delight. "Today is our lucky day. We were just about to find a chick for our gangbanging tonight. I have to admit we've never thought we'd get something as delicious as you."

Celeste stepped back, while he spoke to her, but unfortunately there was no way out as the only thing she could feel behind her back was a wall.

Meanwhile, the group of three young men came closer. Slowly, their victim closed her eyes. It was time to use some of the self-defence skills she had learned in high school.

The gang leader tried to touch her, but she grabbed his arm and turned it around. His scream echoed through the dark alley. With a fast turn to the right, Celeste managed to escape the other two who were just about to grab her.

Dumbfounded, they looked at her.

"What are you looking at?" The leader screamed while he managed to stand up again. "Go and get her!"

Celeste ran as fast as she could.

Hastily, she looked back to estimate how close they were. On the next corner, she turned right and then left before stopping. She put her hands on her knees to get fresh air into her burning lungs while she evaluated where to go next.

Celeste was terrified when she heard the gangsters quickly approaching. Panicking, she looked around, but there was nowhere she could hide. With a loud sigh she sprinted to get out of the system of dark alleys, but the tormentors were close. Too close. She could hear them organising themselves in order to catch her. Even worse, one of the men showed up in front of her just a couple of meters away.

Afraid, she turned around and felt suddenly somebody grabbing her by her waist. In the blink of an eye she was pulled into a wall niche, located just about a metre away in a narrow alley between two houses.

Her breath stopped in total panic. The man who had pulled her to him silenced her by putting his index finger on her lips. When her eyes had finally adjusted to the darkness in the niche, she realised that the man was Clark Kent!

Her heart skipped for a moment with this revelation. He looked into her eyes and smiled reassuringly.

When the gangsters stopped in front of them, Clark pulled her even closer than he had before while her head rested on his chest.

It was very narrow where they were standing, and they both had just enough space to stand together very closely. They were so close that she could hear his heartbeat, which was oddly enough _very_ slow.

Due to the lack of any more space for him to go, Clark covered her head with his right hand, and she looked up at him. Involuntarily, he brushed a lock of hair out of her face. The scent of his aftershave made Celeste dizzy and she felt a warm sensation crawling up her spine.

Clark couldn't help but feel very strange himself while the beautiful young woman in his arms shivered from fear. He had seen her in action when he had decided to walk home from the Planet in order to digest the fact that Lois was pregnant with Richard's child.

He had also noticed that Celeste had tried to defeat the gangsters and, for a split-second, he had really thought about changing into his Superman outfit. But when she had managed to run away, Clark had changed his mind and decided to protect her as himself, the geeky reporter.

_A very good decision_, he thought.

While she was still shivering in his arms, he wondered if he would had been able to come this close to her disguised as the hero everybody on this earth knew and admired.

When the gangleader and two of his men began arguing about the whereabouts of the sexy girl just two meters away from Clark and Celeste, they both stopped breathing.

"Where did she go?" The gangleader asked.

"I don't know. One second she was there and the next gone," his henchman replied.

Suddenly the victim and her companion heard a loud slap.

"The girl didn't vanish into nothing, you idiot. Go and find her. NOW!"

The man nodded and walked away, the leader just behind him, and the third young man looking around while he followed them, still puzzled as to how the girl had managed to escape them. Clark and Celeste listened while their steps vanished away.

After five minutes, Clark x-rayed the whole surrounding within a 500-meters distance, just to make sure they were gone for good. When he couldn't see them anymore, he helped Celeste to step out of the niche.

Stunned, she looked into his eyes, putting her arms around her waist, suddenly aware of the loss of his warmth and closeness.

"Thank you," she said. "But what were you doing in this skid row?"

He shrugged. "I wanted to walk home after a long day at work."

She frowned. "Do you always walk through dark alleys in the middle of night in Metropolis?"

He ran a hand through his hair. "Well, I could ask you the same," he said, looking very seriously into her eyes.

"Touché," she surrendered and smiled.

"Can I escort you to your hotel?" Clark offered.

Somehow, Celeste adored the mild-mannered reporter. He was very special and like no one she had ever met before.

"Yes," she agreed. "But only if I can invite you in for a 'thank-you-for-saving-my-ass' drink."

He grinned. "It's my pleasure. Can I suggest a bar?"

She grabbed his arm. "Yes, but it better be good. I need a _big_ drink."

The bar was a very tasteful choice. Despite the late hour, there were still a lot of people sitting around the tables.

Clark manoeuvred Celeste directly to the bar where the bar keeper already greeted them before they were sitting on their stools.

"Hey Clark," he said. "Long time, no see. How have you been?"

"Hi, Benny. Busy. Crime never sleeps when you're an investigative reporter."

"Tell me about it." Benny turned around and looked to Celeste. "And who is this lovely lady accompanying you?"

Clark smiled. "I actually don't know her name," he admitted.

Celeste shook the hand of the barkeeper.

"Celeste McPherson. It's nice to meet you both," she said with a slanting look to her side.

"Wow. You're from Australia? How does it come by _you're_ here in the world's biggest metropolis?" The barkeeper asked.

"I have business here for a few weeks."

"How do you like it?" Benny asked curiously.

Celeste looked into the deep blue eyes of the man who was sitting next to her. "It's very interesting," she replied sincerely.

"Well, I surely hope you have a great time here! What would you like to order?"

"Just the usual," Clark ordered and with a look to Celeste. "And the lady?"

"Do you have a strong whiskey? I could really use a glass."

"Sure. Won't take a second," Benny said, and turned around to process the order.

When the barkeeper put their drinks on the bar, Celeste grabbed the 30-year old single-malt and cheered to the man who had saved her.

"Thank you, Clark, for helping me out in fighting the bad boys," she said with a wide grin on her face.

He smiled and cheered with his red wine.

"You're welcome. But please try to stay out of trouble next time."

An even broader grin curled on Celeste's face.

"Promise," she said and took a big gulp from her glass, curling her face when the strong burn from the whiskey went down her throat.

When she put the glass back on the bar, she saw the latest edition of the Daily Planet lying there.

On the front page, there was an extremely beautiful picture of Superman carrying the woman he had saved from the broken car.

"And if you're not around, I can always call him," she stated, pointing at the picture.

Clark winced, and looked into her eyes. "You could always try," he said, as casual as he could.

"But then I have to think of a reason for him to fly me to the hospital like the lady here."

Surprised, Clark looked at the picture. "How do you know he took her to the hospital?"

"I was there. She was pretty scared. Told him her heart was beating out of her chest." She took another big gulp, and after she had recovered from the burning sensation the whiskey caused in her throat, she continued. "Made me realise how sorry I feel for him."

Now Clark was curious. "Sorry? Why?"

She sighed and traced Superman's face with her fingers. A gesture which sent shivers down Clark's spine.

"It's just something I feel, no wonder, since I have noticed that there is somebody on this earth trying to save us." She looked into his eyes and was stunned by his expression. Why did he look at her like that?

"What I mean is," she continued. "Who is he really apart from the obvious - being an orphan alien from another planet? He saves our lives on a daily basis without ever asking for a favour back, but what are _his_ dreams and fears? Does he have somebody he can lean on? Somebody who cares about him? He cares about? I am pretty sure that even the fastest blur in the world can't outrun loneliness."

Stunned, Clark bit his lip and lowered his head, looking at the picture.

Nobody in this entire world had ever asked him those questions, apart from his parents.

He felt lonely - very lonely indeed. Especially since Lois and Richard had been married and were about to start a new family. But even Lois had never asked him those questions.

She had always assumed that his strength on the outside automatically caused him to be vigorous in the inside. But this assumption was far from the truth and the only people who were able to see this were Jonathan, Martha, and Jason. And oddly enough, a very interesting woman from Australia he hadn't known for more than a couple of days.

Celeste was confused about Clark's silence. He looked like he was deep in thoughts, as if she had hit a nerve. Maybe this was something he had also asked himself when he had met the hero?

When he looked up again, Celeste noticed a single tear running down his cheek. Cerulean eyes met deep green. They glanced at each other, stunned by the fact that they could understand each other on a level which needed no words. She wiped away the tear and Clark leaned his head into her palm while his eyes stayed glued to hers.

Celeste's cell rung, and the magic moment was gone. Shyly, she let go of him and fished her mobile phone out of the pocket of her winter coat.

"Hello?" she answered, still looking at the man in front of her.

"Celeste?"

"Mathieu!"

"Hey what's up?" the person on the other side of the line asked.

Celeste turned around to have some privacy. Clark could not help but to eavesdrop on the conversation.

"Everything is cool. Where are you?"

"I'm at the Cairns Domestic Airport and have a couple of minutes. I thought the best way to utilise them is to call you, my sweetheart. I miss you."

Even Clark could not oversee the wide grin on her face.

"I miss you too, sailor."

Then the line went dead. Celeste was surprised but this wasn't unusual with Mathieu's stupid cell phone. She closed hers and turned back to the reporter. It was awkward to look at him after they had spent such an intimate moment.

"My boyfriend," she explained nervously, alarmed about what Clark's reaction to this statement would be. "He's a pilot," she added just to break the silence between them.

Clark turned around and took a big gulp from his wine.

"Wow, that's great," he said, not being able to suppress his frustration.


	9. Chapter 7

**A/N: My dear readers, a new chapter. Enjoy!**

**Thanks to my betas Smile Life Away and tubazrcool :)**

**7.**

The next day, Clark sat at his desk at the Daily Planet, lost in his thoughts.

He was typing some words about his investigation of the museum robbery in the computer keyboard that didn't make sense at all. The whole day he hadn't been able to form a straight thought. All because of Celeste McPherson.

_Celeste McPherson_, he thought. _What a great name for a very special person_.

He had done it again. Like so many times that day. His only thoughts were circling around the Australian woman he had only met a few days ago, and who was seriously out of his league as she had a very_ real_ boyfriend.

Clark rubbed his face with his hands. He was tired and he needed a cup of coffee. Preferably very strong. The night and the following morning had been very busy for him with a number of saves around the world after he had dropped off Celeste at her hotel.

When he was just about to get up to get a cup of the stimulating beverage, he was surprised to see Lois walking towards him with a coffee cup in her hand.

She placed it next to his computer and sat down on the top of the desk. "I figured you needed one. You look extremely worn out today," she explained with a smile on her lips.

Clark was stunned. Since Lois and Richard had been married, his relationship with his partner was light-years better than before. She really cared about him as Clark and he knew one of the reasons was the fact that he got on so well with Jason.

"You are my life saver," he said while he sipped on the hot beverage.

"Anytime. I met Perry on my way over here. He wants to see you and Jimmy – a new assignment."

Clark stood up and smiled at her. "Well then, I should try to find our fearless photographer."

When the two men were finally standing in front of their editor-in-chief, it didn't take the older man long to yell at them.

"When I say I want to see you 'now,' that means _now_. Not ten minutes later and certainly not twenty minutes later. Got that?"

The two younger men just nodded and looked at him. This made Perry a little calmer. While he searched for some papers amidst the chaos on his desk, he continued to talk.

"I want you to go to the Metropolis Dance Theatre this evening. There will be a new ballet performance. A scandal from what I've heard. The show is from Australia and you both have the honour to interview and photograph the two main cast members during one of their rehearsals."

Clark was surprised. What was this with Australia recently in his life? But he was not sympathetic with the idea. "Boss? Don't we have a special team for this?" he asked, annoyed.

The glance from Perry's eyes let Clark freeze in his thoughts. "Do you have a problem with my decisions, Kent?"

The younger man adjusted his glasses. "No, sir."

"Good," Perry replied, pleased. "You have an appointment with the two leads at 8pm sharp."

Clark looked on his wristwatch and noticed that they only had two hours left until they had to be at the venue. "Jimmy, I have to go to my apartment to organise some things. Can we meet up ten minutes to eight in front of the Dance Theatre?" he asked his friend.

The photographer nodded. "That's cool. I have to get my other camera gear anyway."

Thirty minutes later Clark stepped into the hallway of the old villa where his unit was situated. He could already hear sobbing before he even had walked up the three staircases to his apartment. Concerned, he increased the speed and took three steps at a time. When he arrived at the top floor, he finally realised who was sitting in front of the door.

"Jason! What happened?"

"Please, make it stop," the boy begged his father.

Clark lifted his hand and swept it over the boy's dark brown hair. "What, Jason?"

His son looked at him and Clark could see the frustration in his eyes. "The terrible noises," he said, covering his ears.

Whoa! Clark was shocked to say the least. He lifted the boy up in his arms and opened the door to the apartment. There he sat him on a chair and took a seat just in front of the boy.

Concerned, he looked at Jason who still had his ears covered. "What do you hear?" He asked while he placed a hand on his shoulder.

Jason looked up. "Everything. The traffic noises are so loud, and I can hear a dog bark and I know he is far away from us... Please make it stop!"

Clark put a hand under the boy's chin and forced him to look at his him. "Jason, I can't make it stop. But I can help you to handle it, to switch it off to only the relevant noises. But I need your help and we also have to talk to your mother and Richard about this."

The boy nodded. He was happy with everything his father suggested as long as it stopped.

Clark focused his hearing till he heard something he knew Jason would be interested in. It was an experiment as the noise was very far away, but he wanted to know how good Jason could really hear.

"Okay," Clark said while he took the boy's hands into his. "I want you to concentrate." Jason nodded. "Try to block out all the useless noises. For example, the traffic noise, or the two women chatting in front of the house." Clark put a hand on Jason's shoulder to reassure him. "You can close your eyes if it makes it easier for you."

Jason did what his father had told him and was surprised that it was really easier to focus on the specific sounds.

"Okay, now the tricky part. Try to find the animal I'm hearing at the moment. One clue: it is very big and lives in the ocean."

Jason frowned. He could hear so many noises. Nothing made sense to him.

"I can't, Daddy. It's too hard."

"Try it just one more time." Clark tried to convince his son.

The boy glued his eyes together very tight. So tight that it hurt him, but he didn't want to disappoint his father. He tried it. He tried it very hard. And it worked!

All the funny noises disappeared except for the singing of the whales far far away from Metropolis.

"I can hear them! Daddy, this is so beautiful!" he screamed, jumping into Clark's lap. There, he started to cry.

"It's okay, Jason. I'm here. You did a fantastic job. Just try to remember this exercise. Especially if I'm not available to help you right away."

The boy nodded and put a kiss on Clark's cheek. "Thanks, Daddy. I love you!"

"I love you, too," Clark replied; he buried his head in Jason's shoulder as he didn't want the boy to see the tears falling down his cheeks.

* * *

That evening, Clark was really pissed at Perry. It was ridiculous to send him and Jimmy to such an irrelevant interview when Lois and Richard were assigned to the big stories.

Speaking of Lois - she had been pretty worked up about Jason running away from home and showing up at Uncle Clark's place. Clark rubbed his eyes. The most awkward part had been the meeting afterwards with Superman, Richard, Lois and the boy. He shrugged at the thought of it.

But this was something they all had to get used to. It was just the way it was, and with Jason developing more of the super abilities there was a long way they had to go. Fortunately, for all of them, they got on very well, which helped a lot - especially Jason.

"Hey CK, you're late; it's already eight." Jimmy catapulted him out of his thoughts.

"I know, sorry, Jimmy." Clark excused himself. "I had some things to take care of."

"Never mind. Let's see where we can find the chorus girl and boy."

They walked around the dance theatre and found an entrance in the back. A couple of dancers where standing in front of the door, smoking their cigarettes.

"Hi." Jimmy introduced himself. "Do you know where we can find the lead dancers?"

"Are you the reporters they are waiting for?" One of the girls asked, blowing out a big cloud of smoke, directly into Clark's face. He coughed and nodded. The girl just waved her hand, showing them the direction where some piano music came from.

The two men entered the room where approximately twenty dancers where standing around and talking to each other. In the middle of the room was the choreographer, who was shouting into cupped hands.

"Okay guys. One more time and you are dismissed for today." They all cheered and walked to their starting points. When the choreographer spotted the newcomers, he went straight to the two reporters. "Hi. I assume you are the journalists from the Daily Planet?"

Clark nodded and shook the man's hand. "Clark Kent. This is my photographer Jimmy Olsen. I'm pleased to meet you."

"Likewise," the man responded. "My name is Jason Green. My two leads will show up in a minute. You are allowed to take photos during the last rehearsal of the day."

The reporters thanked the Australian choreographer, and Jimmy prepared his gear in order to take photos.

Jason Green went with the two men to the side of the room, where they could watch the performance the best. "Music!" he commanded.

A couple of minutes later the music started to play, and the pianist of the Hilltop Hoods tinkled into the ivories on the MP3-player connected to a huge sound system.

The Hip-Hop song "Chase That Feeling" was obviously not something the journalists had expected from a Romeo and Juliet production.

Five men dressed in black showed up on the floor in front of the huge mirrors located on the left side of the rehearsal room. They danced in a circle around someone rolled up on the floor. The ballet dancer on the floor was covered with black chiffon. Alexander picked the dancer up from the floor and the viewers were now able to notice that the dancer was a woman. She was sitting on his left shoulder, only dancing with her hands, her whole body still covered with the chiffon.

Jimmy was absolutely thrilled. The figure both dancers just showed looked amazing. He switched his Nikon to the sports setting and took some pictures. When the four dancers around the man and woman in the middle of the dance floor took the fabric away, Jimmy jogged Clark's elbow as he finally realised who the dancer on Alexander's shoulder was.

Alexander put his dancing partner down on the floor, and Celeste got on pointe. She danced around the five men in very beautiful dance moves, suiting perfectly to the Hip-Hop track.

Clark watched the Australian dancer with his eyes wide open.

Celeste had on a black dress, her tights looked very worn out, so did her ballet shoes, which had certainly seen better days. He especially liked her blond corkscrew curls, restrained in a ponytail. Some of her locks had escaped the hairdo and where now glued to her cheeks with the sweat on her face.

When Celeste got to Alexander, she went on her right foot and bent over into a split. He held her and lifted her where she went into another split midair. Gently, he put her down and Celeste caressed his cheek. Two men walked up to her and pulled her away from her partner by holding on to her arms. Alexander tried to get to her, but he was held back by the two other men. Celeste tried to get free, but the two ballet dancers holding her, lifted her into a pirouette. Finally Alexander got free and danced to Celeste. There he jumped up, imitating fighting the dancers holding her back. When they released Celeste, she ran into the arms of her dancing partner. Alexander put Celeste on his arms and spun around with her.

The odd thing was that even though for the viewers around her, the dancer did an extraordinary job, Celeste was everything but present. At least with her thoughts.

She was utterly confused about the connection she obviously had to the American reporter. What confused her even more, was the fact, that this man touched her insight like nobody else before. That was a very strange feeling for her.

Meanwhile, the four dancers were now at the floor, trying to reach for the couple. Celeste was that deep in her thoughts that she still hadn't realised that Clark Kent was in the same room, watching her.

Alexander put her back on her feet and she went up to her tiptoes, dancing around him in pirouettes. Then he stopped her and lifted her up. She rolled over his back, landing on the floor. There she stumbled for a second, feeling dizzy. When she realised that she hadn't eaten for the whole day, a black curtain closed over her eyes, and she fainted in front of all the people attending the rehearsal.

* * *

Her head hurt terribly. Celeste finally managed to open her eyes, and was surprised to look in very familiar cerulean. She tried to get up.

"Gosh, please don't tell me you came to the rescue _again_?" She said curling up her face in pain.

"I can't help myself. You seem always to get in trouble when I'm around." He replied, helping her to sit upright.

"Go figure! I have no idea where this comes from."

"I'm just irresistible," Clark pointed out, with a wide grin on his face.

She laughed and stood up with the help of the reporter, who had an arm safely around her waist. She was still feeling a bit dizzy. All of her dancing colleagues had gathered around her and asked her, concerned, if everything was all right.

"Pretty convenient timing to faint in front of two reporters of the world's biggest newspaper," one of the girls said.

"Shut up, bitch!" Celeste snapped very silently under her breath.

"Miss McPherson. Are you always that delightful?" Clark asked her. Apparently he had heard her.

Celeste bit her lip and he smiled. "She's just jealous," she explained. "You can let go, I feel okay."

Quickly he let her stand by herself, but watched her with his head tilted to the side.

She looked into his eyes and smiled. "Don't tell me you're the reporter assigned to interview Alexander and me?" She asked.

"Well, I have to admit I wasn't thrilled, but this assignment has certainly become very interesting," he teased her.

The ballet dancer looked around and bit her lower lip. All of her colleagues looked at her. So did Jimmy and Jason Green, her boss. "Why don't we go to a more private place to conduct the interview?" She asked the two reporters pleadingly.

Alexander walked up to them. "Are you okay?" He asked, obviously a bit concerned.

"I'm fine. I just need something to eat. What about the bar we went to yesterday?" Celeste asked Clark.

Now Jimmy was really intrigued. He looked up to the tall reporter standing next to him. "A bar, huh?"

Clark adjusted his glasses and smiled insecurely. "That may be not a bad idea. But tonight is club night."

Jimmy's mouth dropped open. Here he was with his colleague, the geeky reporter. He would have never thought that Clark Kent knew a thing about club nights.

Celeste walked up to the man and looked into his deep icy-blue eyes. "Do they have something to eat there?"

He shifted from one to the other foot as he felt her glance burning through and through. "I would think so," he replied.

"Then the bar it is. I have to change into my street clothes. What about us meeting up there in about half an hour? Alexander, are you coming with us?"

The male ballet dancer nodded. A club night was just what he needed at the moment. Meanwhile, Jimmy and Clark thanked the Australian choreographer and left the rehearsal room.

While they were waiting for a cab, Jimmy glanced at Clark.

"You had a date with this incredibly hot lady?"

His opponent adjusted his glasses. A wide grin curled on his face. "Well, I wouldn't say it was a date. We accidentally bumped into each other yesterday and made the decision to have a drink. What's wrong with that?"

"Nothing," Jimmy replied, while he was jumping into the taxi, which had just stopped in front of them.


	10. Chapter 8

**A/N: My dear readers, a new chapter with a bit more dancing action, upgrading the rating into the M section ;) **

**Thanks to my betas Smile Life Away and tubazrcool :)**

**8.**

Half an hour later, Celeste and Alexander joined Clark and Jimmy at the bar. It was very crowded that day. When Celeste finally arrived at their table, she sat down, and blew a lock of hair out of her face, a gesture Clark liked so much about her. The music was ear-splitting. Celeste thought that the choice of the location wasn't really the best to conduct an interview, but they could move to another place soon enough. All she wanted after the long day of rehearsals was having a bit of fun and a big, juicy burger.

Alexander was already about to order the beers for the four of them. When the waitress finally brought them their brewage, Clark took a sip and whipped a notepad and pencil out of his briefcase. It was impossible for them to talk without shouting at each other. Clark leaned a bit over and yelled into Celeste's ear.

"Well, let's start. So, the _Romeo and Juliet_ production doesn't follow the traditional path?" He asked.

Celeste turned her head. "No," she answered into his ear.

He looked at her and smiled, sending one million butterflies through her tummy. "I don't think William Shakespeare would be too happy about that," he stated.

"How do you know?" She disagreed. "Maybe he would have liked it. And, by the way, you have only seen a tiny little part of the production."

Now Clark was surprised. "This was _a scene_ from the actual production?" He asked astonished.

"Yes," Celeste confirmed.

He took another sip from his beer and continued. "From what I've heard, _Romeo and Juliet_ was a scandal in Australia. Apparently, there were very graphic intimate moves involved during the concert. I'm sorry, but I absolutely can't imagine that in an American production."

The young ballet dancer smiled mischievously. How cute and innocent this reporter was? She leaned a bit more to Alexander and whispered something into his right ear. After a couple of minutes he gave her the 'thumbs-up'.

Celeste stood up, walked to the DJ, and talked to him. When she was finished, he nodded, excited, grabbed his microphone and turned down the music. "Guys, I just heard that we have some special guests here tonight."

He hugged Celeste on one side and Alexander on the other, who had just come on the dance floor.

"These are Celeste and Alexander from Australia and Sweden. They asked me if they can show us a dance. What do you think people?"

The crowd cheered to the couple standing on the dance floor, including Jimmy who was really excited to see them dancing again. Clark on the other hand got really nervous.

When both dancers were ready to start, Celeste nodded to the DJ and Rihanna's "Rude Boy" started to play. After the first beats the two dancers started to move to the music in a very hard Hip-Hop style. They were standing next to each other and doing the steps in flawless unison. Then they walked a few steps forward till they both hit the floor with their knees. After that they stood up again, Celeste turned around, facing Alexander.

For a second they looked at each other, then Celeste jumped into his arms and clutched on him with her long legs wrapped around his hips. Her black dress slipped dangerously upwards with this move. The crowd gasped when they realised that they had a really revealing glimpse of her black lace lingerie. So did Clark and Jimmy. They looked at each other beyond belief.

Meanwhile, Alexander lowered his head and kissed his dancing partner on her neck. Celeste grabbed him on his hair and pulled him closer, tilted her head back, and moved her hips matching the Hip-Hop beat of the music.

Alexander put her back on the floor and walked behind her. Celeste let herself fall into his arms and opened up her legs just to give the audience a glimpse of her black lace suspenders under her very short mini-dress. This move let the dance appear a few nuances more erotic than before.

Alexander lowered his head and continued to kiss her cleavage while he slowly, matching with the beats, let his hands wander to the secret place between her legs. Celeste clawed her fingernails into his buttocks and tilted her head back with her eyes closed. With this move, her blonde corkscrew curls floated wildly over Alexander's shoulder.

The crowd started to scream in enthusiasm over what they were witnessing. Alexander let Celeste go just a little bit and slipped his hand into her décolleté. They still moved their hips. Then Celeste turned around. Her dance partner got on his knees and pulled Celeste down into his lap. There they both moved up and down to the beat, the crowd getting louder and louder with their moves.

When the last beat of the song approached, Celeste bent her body back as far as she could while the music faded away. Then there was absolute silence. The only noise noticeable was the two dancers trying to catch their breath, while they were looking into each other's eyes.

After a couple of minutes they slowly stood up from the floor. Two men on a table not far away from Celeste looked at her with wide grins on their faces.

"Can I be your 'Rude Boy'?" One of them asked the Australian ballet dancer.

Celeste walked up to him, while she was putting her hand into the wine cooler located next to the table. With the sweetest smile, she dropped a hand full of ice cubes between the man's stride and walked away.

The crowd, now ecstatic, cheered for the two dancers who made their way back to their table. There the two reporters just looked stunned at the dancers.

Cerulean eyes piercing into greens.

Celeste bit her lower lip. The mild-mannered reporter somehow looked very embarrassed. He also had gotten rid of his jacket, the tie and had his shirt-sleeves rolled up.

Gently she bent down to him. "Was that hot enough for you?" She sweetly whispered into his ear.

Clark smiled and pulled her closer, to sweep a lock of hair out of her face. This gesture sent shivers down Celeste's spine. "At least I finally know why you showed up in Metropolis in only a light summer dress in the middle of the winter," he teased her, while a wide grin curled on his face.


	11. Chapter 9

**A/N: My dear readers, a new chapter…**

**I want to thank diffiCULTURE for bringing in some great ideas for this chapter!**

**A big thanks goes to my betas Smile Life Away and tubazrcool :)**

**9.**

On the way back into her hotel, Celeste was deep in thoughts. Clark Kent touched her heart in ways she had never felt before and this confused her greatly. They had agreed to continue the interview the next afternoon, as it had been too loud in the bar to talk.

Alexander, who was accompanying her in the cab smiled at her. "I think we really shocked the two reporters," he said in his gorgeous Swedish accent.

"We are in the United States, sweetheart," she replied.

"Do you think you can handle the interview tomorrow without me?"

Celeste turned around and looked directly into Alexander's eyes. "What? Where are you going?"

"I have to go to the airport. My girlfriend is arriving at the time we have the interview."

Now the ballet dancer smiled. "Your girlfriend, huh?" She teased him.

"Yes, and guess what? Tomorrow I will propose to her."

"Wow. You are excused. I can handle the reporters on my own. No worries."

Alexander took her hand and kissed it. "This is why I'm so impressed with you. And I haven't even known you for that long. You are very special, Celeste McPherson."

She placed a hand on his cheek. "I'll cover for you. Have all the fun you can have." The cab stopped in front of the hotel and both dancers got out. Inside the lobby, Celeste hugged her dancing partner. "Good night and good luck for tomorrow!"

Then she walked up to the reception. The receptionist gave her the key to her room, and a package addressed to her personally. When she arrived in her suite, she put down her keys and her backpack, and looked curiously at the package in her hands. There was no sender's name and it was addressed to her dancing agency.

Celeste tried to find out what was in it, by feeling through the padded paper. She bit her lower lip. It was obviously a CD or DVD. She shook her head. All this was very mysterious.

Curiously, she opened the envelope and fished a DVD out of it. She held it over her head to find out if there was anything written on it. But she had no such luck. Then she looked into the envelope - hoping there was a clue about whom had sent it. No such luck there, either.

Celeste pursed her lips and thought about what to do - even though it was obvious.

After a couple of minutes, she walked to the DVD-player and fed it with the digital disk and pressed the play button on the remote control.

_What's that all about?_, she thought, when the first pictures showed up on the television screen.

Firstly, the camera was shaking dangerously. Then a woman stepped into the picture. She was very slim and tall. Her clothing was extremely unusual. It reminded Celeste of the Venetian robes, people used to wear at the Venetian Carnival. Her white mask was decorated with big black feathers and shining rhinestones.

The room where the recording had been made was huge. In the middle of the room, almost placed like an altar, was a canopy bed, covered in black and white chiffon. The linen in the bed was made from silk, beautifully shining in the light reflecting from hundreds of candles placed around the bed.

The woman walked out of sight and Celeste could only hear some people whispering. Then a man appeared. He was dressed similarly to the woman, but his mask was black, and decorated with long white feathers.

The mystic atmosphere was almost palpable, and strange melancholy music emphasised the unusual ambiance.

The woman on the recording indicated the man to sit down, where the camera could catch precisely everything they did. Somehow, Celeste had the suspicion that the man had no idea about the camera directed at him.

Meanwhile, the woman climbed into the man's lap and started to uncover his immaculate body while he grabbed her at her hips and pulled her closer, their lips joining. Celeste watched with eyes wide open how they played with their dancing tongues.

Both started to pant while the woman pulled off her coat, revealing her bare body underneath. Celeste's eyes widened even more, when she realised that both of them started to make love.

The movements became faster, harder and more intense until they reached their climaxes, and finally the sex sounds started to vanish, leaving them just looking at each other, panting, with their chests rising up and down in order to catch their breaths.

After they had calmed down, the man removed his mask, but Celeste could not recognise him. The woman stood up from the bed. While she was walking towards the camera, she too removed her mask and left Celeste looking astonished on the screen.

It was Tania, her boyfriend's ex-girlfriend.

When the man called out the woman's name, she turned around, facing him. He walked up to her, now revealing his face to the camera.

Mathieu!

He swept Tania into his arms and kissed her passionately.

Meanwhile, Celeste desperately tried to catch her breath.

Absentmindedly, she stared at the screen. The time stamp indicated that the video was made the night she had flown out to the United States. A sharp pain went through her chest.

Why had her boyfriend done this to her?

* * *

Clark heard his home phone ringing, the moment he walked up the steps to his apartment. He turned the key, opened the door and picked up the phone in super-speed.

"Yes?"

"Clark. How are you?" A very smooth voice at the other side of the line asked.

He removed his glasses and put them together with the keys on the coffee table.

"Mom, what's up? Aren't you asleep? It's almost 1 am here in Metropolis."

"We wanted to know how you are," his dad explained.

"We haven't heard from you since we've been back in Smallville," his mother added reproachful.

Clark rubbed weary his eyes. "I know. Sorry about that, but life is pretty busy at the moment." He fished the premiere cards for _Romeo and Juliet_ out of his jacket.

"But I wanted to call you anyway," he said. "It's this new assignment Perry gave us. Jimmy and I went to interview the two main casts of an Australian ballet production." His heartbeat increased at the thought of Celeste. "We got four tickets for the premiere and Jimmy gave me his second card for one of you as he knows how much you both love ballet. It's really good. We had the honour to watch a scene this evening. Actually, we watched two scenes," he added with a wide grin.

"Really?" Martha said in anticipation.

"When is this event?" Jonathan asked.

"In two weeks."

"We'll think about it. How are things otherwise?"

Clark sat down on the dining table and rubbed his eyes again. He was tired and confused. "Jason ran away from home. And Lois is pregnant."

"What?" Both parents managed to say in unison.

"Don't worry; everything is fine with Jason. He had some problems with his ears, nothing serious." He never talked about anything related to superpowers over the phone, just in case somebody would listen, but his parents knew exactly what he meant.

"Is he okay?" His father asked.

"Yes, we got it sorted out - his parents and I."

"And what about the other thing?" His mother asked very concerned.

"It's okay, mom; they are married. Married people will eventually start a family at some point of their marriage." Clark was trying to convince more himself than his parents. "I mean, that is what a marriage is for, right?" He continued to rumble and the train of thoughts hit him like a truck.

Back in Kansas, Martha looked at Jonathan. Her husband instantly knew what she was thinking about.

"Son, we will come to the premier of _Romeo and Juliet_," Jonathan said.

"You don't have to come to hold my hands to get over the fact that I have really lost Lois to Richard." Clark snapped at his parents, at the same moment regretting what he had said.

"We will book a flight tomorrow morning," his dad decided. Clark knew that there was no way to object his parents.

"Bye sweetheart." Martha said. "And take care."

"I promise, bye." Clark said, hung up and smiled. He really adored his earth parents.

After he had taken a shower, he changed into his Superman outfit and sped up above the earth's atmosphere. There he hovered, listening to the distance noises with his eyes closed. This was the only place where he was able to cope with his life at the moment. When he heard a cry for help, he opened his eyes and shot back to earth in lighting speed.

* * *

Celeste could not manage to do anything the day after she had seen the DVD recording. She called her choreographer early in the morning and told him that she wouldn't be available for rehearsals for the next couple of days.

Then she called the room service and ordered the largest amount of ice cream she could get. While she was scooping big spoons of Cookies and Cream ice cream into her mouth, she re-watched the DVD, almost the whole morning, wondering if Tania had been the one who had sent it to her.

At some point she stopped the DVD, where Mathieu had revealed his identity, and picked up the phone to dial his cell number. She needed to talk to him, to scream at him, to ask him if he truly and seriously had cheated on her with_ Tania_. Anything. And most of all to get an answer to the most important question she had: _Why_?

The phone went straight to the message bank after a couple of minutes. _Too busy fucking Tania?,_ Celeste thought very angrily, while she tossed the cell phone on the coffee table, and pressed the play button of the DVD player again.

After another hour of watching the DVD, the very upset ballet dancer eventually felt asleep out of exhaustion in the afternoon.

A knocking sound ripped Celeste out of her nightmares of Mathieu making dirty love to his ex-girlfriend. When she finally managed to stand up from the couch, and opened the door, she suddenly realised that she had forgotten the interview with Clark Kent!


	12. Chapter 10

**A/N: My dear readers, a new chapter for you… **

**Kairan1979****: No, Celeste is certainly not interested in an interview right now…**

**Dragon166****: Mathieu looks like MStJ, Alexander on the other hand looks like…, well this is totally up to your fantasy Sista, but I have to say, good catch on this one!**

**A special thanks goes to my dearest friend dragon166 for writing this chapter with me. You are the greatest author I've known!**

**A big thanks goes to my betas Smile Life Away and tubazrcool :)**

**10.**

Clark knocked at Celeste's door for a second time, but nobody opened. He looked around and knocked again, really concerned. She hadn't shown up for their interview two hours ago, and, while Jimmy had been called back to the Daily Planet, he had made the decision to find out what was going on.

When she finally opened the door, he was horrified.

Her eyes and nose were red, and she was only dressed in a long-shirt, and comfortable socks. When she saw him, she was surprised; after a minute, she just waved her hand, indicating that it was okay for him to enter the room.

Celeste went to the couch and sat down, sniffing her tears away. She could still not believe what she had seen on the DVD.

Clark joined her and looked at her with a questioning glance. The only thing she could do was releasing a long sigh. Then she grabbed the remote control for the DVD player and pushed the rewind button. After a few seconds, she pushed the play button and picked up another tissue from the box as the tears were running down her cheeks without her being able to hold them back.

Now the situation was really awkward for Clark. Very nervously, he shifted a bit on his seat by the thought of watching a pornographic DVD. Outraged, he continued watching while still having an eye on Celeste. When the man on the recording revealed his face to the camera, Celeste started to sob again.

Clark was concerned about her reaction and moved a bit closer to the young woman. She paused the DVD and it took her another five minutes to explain what this was all about. After she had wiped her tears away and blown her nose for the 20th time, she finally managed to say something.

"I got the DVD yesterday evening when I came back from the bar. The man is Mathieu," she rolled her eyes, "my supposed boyfriend. The woman is his ex-girlfriend Tania," was all she could say before she collapsed into Clark's arms.

He felt a bit helpless with the crying woman in his arms, but he managed to shuffle off his coat and jacket, and undo his tie before she clutched on him even harder like there was no tomorrow.

Watching her desperation about what she had had to witness, brought memories back from his own experiences.

The day when Lois had married Richard came back into his mind - so did the day Clark had found out that his former love was pregnant with Richard's child. A tear rolled down his cheek while he was tucking his chin on the top of Celeste's head. But somehow a smile flitted across his face when he realised that she smelled like soap and Cookies & Cream™ ice cream.

After a couple of minutes sitting together like that, he tried to shift her a bit to look into her eyes in order to find out if she would settle again, but she did not want to and buried her head even deeper in his embrace.

All he could do was soothe her with his hand over her back. He felt her tears rolling down on his dress-shirt. Tears were now rolling down his cheeks too. It was all too hard to bear and he buried his face in her soft curls to sob with her. For the first time in months he allowed himself to feel weak about the events surrounding Lois and Jason. And all because of the beautiful Australian dancer who was lying in his arms.

They were sitting like that for a long time, and after a while, Clark almost hadn't noticed it, Celeste had stopped crying and was now looking at him with her eyes wide open.

His deep blue eyes met her brilliant green eyes. Carefully, he wiped a tear from her cheek with his thumb. He wasn't sure what had caused her sudden change from sadness to astonishment. When he looked down his chest, he suddenly knew what had happened.

Meanwhile Celeste lifted her right hand and gently touched the red and yellow S-Shield which was shining through the tear-soaked, white fabric of his dress shirt.

Clark bit his lip and looked directly into her eyes. Eyes which looked very confused at him. He ran a hand trough his hair and removed the glasses. There was no way for him to squirm out of this number. He got up and walked to the window while Celeste watched him. There he turned around and glanced at her.

_When in doubt, stick to the truth_, he thought.

"I can relate to what you must feel after seeing this awful DVD. At the airport, when we met for the first time, the boy you saw, is my son Jason," he started to explain. "His mother and I were deeply in love. She is now married to another man. It's sometimes almost too hard to bear to see her and her new husband together."

He collapsed on his knees on the floor, sobbing. Celeste was still stunned about what she had just found out. She stood up and walked to him and sat on the floor, carefully touching the S for the second time and looking at him with a questioning glance.

He looked up and put his hand over hers. All he could do was nod. A smile hushed over Celeste's face and she pulled him into her arms, giving him the comfort he had given her just a few minutes ago. When they released each other she caught his chin and smiled.

"Thank you for showing me the vulnerable side of the invulnerable man."

Clark was astonished about what Celeste had just said to him. It was absolutely true. She was the first woman in his life he had trusted, even though she had found out his deepest secret by accident.

"Celeste, this wasn't planned," he tried to explain. "It was an accident."

He had changed his habit to wear the super-suit underneath his clothes only a couple of months ago. But today he was called to an emergency just minutes before he had had his appointment with Celeste, and he had figured that it would have been okay. If only he had known.

Finding himself and, most of all, Celeste now in a situation he had never dreamed about in his entire life - the situation of having a person outside his family knowing who he really was and fully accept it – literally blew him away.

He was stunned by the sheer thought of it. Celeste didn't even try to ask him about his heritage or blame him for keeping the secret. She just understood. And this was more than he could have ever wished for. Celeste nodded.

"I know. It's okay. But I think I have subconsciously known it for the whole time, and it all makes sense now," she replied, starting to smile.

"How?" He asked while he was brushing a lock of her hair out of her face.

"Our second meeting. When you protected me from the gangsters. It was so tight in that niche, I had to rest my head on your chest. Do you remember?"

He smiled. Of course he remembered that evening. Nothing in the entire world could make him forget what had happened that evening.

"Clark, your heartbeat is so much slower than mine," Celeste started to explain. "I was surprised, but didn't think about it as we were hiding from the attackers. And at the bar, our conversation? You looked incredibly moved by my statements."

For a very long time they both looked into each other's eyes, unable to speak. Celeste bit her lower lip.

She felt extremely overwhelmed about the events she had witnessed throughout the day. But she couldn't help herself feeling millions of butterflies running through her tummy just when she looked into his deep cerulean eyes. She felt very privileged that she was able to get to know the man behind the mask.

Celeste kissed him on his lips. It was a very innocent kiss but when he brushed his fingers deep into her curly hair and pulled her closer, changing the angle to deepen the kiss, both were lost.

There was no escape and they knew it.

Panting they let from each other. Celeste slipped out of her clothes. While still maintaining his gaze, she spread out on the bed, naked.

She had goose-bumps when he lied next to her, also minus his clothes.

Clark looked deep into her eyes and his fingers began to travel all over her trembling body. To feel every inch of her silky skin made his heart beat much faster than before.

Celeste started her journey with open-mouthed kisses from his jaw-line across his neck to his well-muscled chest. His hands clenched on her delicious buttocks and he pulled her closer. A wave of passion overwhelmed him, which Celeste had just unleashed with her soft touch.

He surrendered to her assiduities while Celeste slipped into his lap and pushed herself slowly upright. The heat and desire from her body was almost unbearable for Clark. But he wanted to savour every second of this experience. He indulged in the incredible scent and taste of her silky skin. The passion of the woman in his lap grew even deeper with his delicate touches. Wildly aroused she shifted back and forth in his lap, a gesture which boosted his passion to a skyrocketing level. She smiled, cerulean eyes meeting green.

He caught her face with his hands and kissed her lips, starting to explore her mouth with his tongue. When he set her lips free again, Clark thought he would lose his mind. He had never felt such a desire for a woman before. While she swept him off his feet, they both got even more thrilled about their love-making. Their passion for each other was mind-blowing, and Celeste closed her eyes, letting herself get carried away on the wave of ecstasy.

* * *

When Clark opened his eyes, he realised that he had fallen asleep. It was dark outside. He turned to the alarm clock and noticed that it was 2am in the morning. When he turned back, his heart skipped a beat.

There she was. A smile flitted over his face. She was cuddled into his arms. The blanket had fallen on the floor. For the lack of fabric to cover her, Celeste was wrapped in his cape, but all he could notice were her blond corkscrew curls, trapped all over her face. He moved a bit closer and swept her hair away so he could see her beautiful face. She was still sound asleep. After he had kissed her softly on her lips, he moved slowly, so as to not wake her up, and slid out of the bed.

The room looked like a battlefield. The clothes were scattered everywhere. With a wide grin, he picked up the super-suit and put it in one of Celeste's training bags. Then, he put on his trousers and walked to the window to watch the million lights shining from the skyscrapers.

He never would have dreamed he would have been able to fall in love again after Lois had married Richard. And even though he wasn't able to define his relationship with Celeste at the moment, he really had strong feelings for the Australian ballet dancer. _As a matter of fact_, he thought, _I think I'm falling for her. Deeply. _

He was still deep in thoughts when he felt soft hands closing around his bare chest.

He turned around and saw Celeste, still covered in his cape. She smiled shyly.

Clark lifted his right hand and brushed one of her locks behind her ear. Celeste was really overwhelmed from the intimacy of the moment.

He pulled her closer. She could feel his heat, his desire, and his happiness about being with her. He looked very handsome with his hair falling into his face. She couldn't help herself and kissed him passionately on his lips while she brushed her hands though his raven black hair.

When they allowed each other to get some air, he smiled. "What?" she whispered, smiling back at him.

Just when he wanted to answer, he frowned. "Are you expecting somebody?" He asked, having x-rayed the door.

"What do...," was all she could manage to say, as the door opened that very moment.


	13. Chapter 11

**A/N: My dear readers, finally a new chapter, revealing who is walking into the room :) **

**Sorry for the delay, but my native English speaking betas are very busy at the moment…**

**A big thanks goes to my betas tubazrcool, Dragon166, and brand new in the mix: ****00Verisimilitude00**** :)**

**11.**

Shocked and beyond belief, Celeste looked at Mathieu as he walked into the room.

After the Australian pilot had tossed his luggage into a corner, he looked up and froze, absolutely horrified at what he saw.

Celeste stood next to the window, only covered in a red fabric, caressing a man he had never seen before.

Without even thinking about what he was doing, Mathieu clenched his right fist, raising it high as he ran up to them.

The world around Clark started to move in slow motion after he saw the man rapidly approaching them. When the punch hit him, Clark moved back with Mathieu's hand to not injure him. His sense of time shifted back to reality as he hit the floor.

"What is going on here?" Mathieu asked angrily, completely distraught with rage.

Celeste first turned to Clark to make sure he was okay even though she knew that she should be more concerned about Mathieu's fist. When she spun around to her ex-lover, the only thing she could do was to slap him into his face.

Twice.

Mathieu looked at her in disbelief while Clark got up from the floor.

"How in the world did you get a key for my hotel room?" Celeste managed to ask through her fury.

"I wanted to surprise you, so I told the lady at the reception that I was your fiancé," he explained, looking back and forward between his girlfriend and the tall man who was standing next to her.

Celeste was stunned. "Great surprise Mathieu! Who do you think you are?" she asked sarcastically once she had gathered her wits.

"What are you talking about?" he demanded. "I'm your _boyfriend. _I had every right to say that! And then I caught you in bed with another man," he spat at her.

Celeste sighed. _Great_, she thought. _This is just great. You bastard. You caught me in bed with Superman. So what? None of your business anymore, honey._

"Well, at least I didn't film it, you bastard," she snapped back at him.

"What are you talking about?" Mathieu asked for the second time.

Furious, Celeste walked to the TV and switched it on. The DVD-player was still on hold on the frame when Mathieu had revealed himself to the camera. Clark could see how much it hurt Celeste to show her ex the scene.

"I am talking about this," she answered in a very shaky voice as she let the scene play. She couldn't even bare to watch it for one more time.

Now Mathieu's anger was abruptly replaced by his previous horror. _Tania filmed our little experiment?,_ he thought wildly.

Clark walked to the young woman and pulled her into his arms. She buried her head into his chest and he could feel her tears running down his skin. He placed his chin on her head and soothed her silently while he was watching Mathieu.

The other man was in agony and Clark couldn't help but feeling sorry for him.

When Celeste managed to calm down a bit, she looked at Clark.

"I think Mathieu and I have to talk."

Clark nodded. This was certainly what he thought they should do too. He kissed her on the lips and smiled.

"I have to go anyway."

Celeste kissed him a second time. "We have to talk too," she pointed out quietly.

He smiled and brushed a lock of hair behind her ear. "I know."

After the man, Celeste admired so much, had gathered together all of his belongings plus Celeste's bag and minus his cape, he walked back over to her and kissed her, while pushing another lock behind her ear.

It was a very passionate kiss, and Mathieu felt severely disturbed as he watched the whole scenario.

There was no doubt in the world that these two people had strong feelings for each other. Frustrated, the Australian pilot buried his head in his hands. _This is all just great_, he thought disgustedly.

When Clark released Celeste's soft lips, she looked at him.

"Didn't you forget something?" she asked pointedly, while clinging on the cape wrapped around her.

"Well, I don't think it would be a gentleman like thing to let you alone naked as a jaybird with your ex," he whispered into her left ear.

"But don't you need it?" was her second, more amazed question.

Again she felt his lips on hers.

"It's okay I have a couple more," he explained as he raised his head from hers. Then he turned to the other man in the room. "Mathieu. It was certainly nice to meet you," Clark said sarcastically, putting a hand on his jaw.

Celeste stared at the door once Clark had closed it. _More capes?_, she thought bemusedly. And with this notion she finally realized what had happened in the last twenty-four hours.

She turned to Mathieu, who was still standing in the middle of the room. "I have to take a shower," she explained to him nervously without looking into his eyes, "Give me a minute." Then she vanished into the bathroom.

* * *

The hot water ran over her shoulders and coursed down her spine in millions of hot rivulets.

Celeste tilted her head back and closed her eyes. Usually a shower calmed her down, but not today. Especially when she closed her eyes, she saw _him_. The man who had swept her from her feet in a blink of an eye. _Or faster than a speeding bullet?_ she thought and smirked. His touch had been something she had never felt before. Gentle, sensuous, and almost otherworldly. That hadn't been just sex. They had made love in the purest form imaginable.

Celeste opened her eyes and thought about what she had asked him after their lovemaking.

* * *

Superman hovered in the place where he usually went when he needed time to think. He was extremely confused about what had happened between him and Celeste.

"Why is it so different with you?" Celeste had asked him. These words still echoed in his ears.

He closed his eyes and thought about his response. Better what he had shown her, as there hadn't been an easy verbal answer to it. He remembered walking over to the coffee table and picking up a stone from the centerpiece. Then he had gone back to her in the bed, facing her. With his hand open she had seen the stone lying there in the shape water, wind and sun had formed it a million years ago. Then he had closed his fist.

* * *

Celeste shivered at the thought of it. It had looked as if he hadn't even used force at all. But when he had opened his clenched hand, the stone had been vanished, leaving behind only some very fine dust in his palm. The demonstration had shown her how much self-control he must always have when he walks through her world of, for him, very vulnerable people.

After climbing out of the shower, Celeste wiped with her right hand over the fogged-up mirror. Looking at her own reflection, she realized that it hadn't only been Clark's immense self-control that had caused her to feel that overwhelming sensation when they had made love.

It was something much more!

* * *

Twenty minutes later, she was back in the room, dressed in jeans and a sweater, and sat next to Mathieu on the couch.

While she had been in the shower, he had replayed the DVD. It was still going when she had stepped into the room to join him.

Sighing, Mathieu grabbed the remote control and switched it off. "I think this situation really sucks balls," he said blandly.

Celeste pursed her lips. "You could say that," she agreed, and put a hand on his cheek. "Why did you do that?" She jerked her head at the now silent television.

"You have to believe me; I didn't want it to happen," he said softly, but he didn't meet her eyes.

Celeste threw him a disbelieving glance, and pointed an accusatory finger.

"Well this didn't really look to me like you were forced to do something you didn't want to," she retorted.

"How in the world would you know anything? Do you even know me at all?" he demanded, reacting to her irate tone.

"Clearly not, if you go gallivanting around with your ex as soon as I turn my back!" Celeste said loudly. "Tell the truth, you lying bastard."

Now Mathieu really got angry.

"Okay. I admit it. I really liked it. And when Tania came, asking me if I would like to participate in her little experiment, I was thrilled. Really thrilled," he yelled at her.

This statement hit Celeste full force. Thick tears started to roll down her cheeks and she fought desperately to hold it all together. With closed eyes she took in a deep breath, then she looked at Mathieu asking in a calm voice, "What did go wrong with us that you were that excited to see _her_ again?"

The young ballet dancer had never liked Mathieu's ex. Tania was a coldhearted, calculating snake, who had always tried to drive a wedge in Celeste's relationship. Apparently she had finally succeeded the minute Celeste had been off to Metropolis.

Mathieu looked at her a moment, his angry expression softening as he watched the tears leak from her eyes. Abruptly he got up and walked to the window. "I was so hurt, when you left to fulfill your dream to chase your career in the biggest city of the world. I thought, wow, she really did it. She really left me to go and live her life. Without me," he muttered, almost to himself.

Celeste was confused. "But that's not fair," she said slowly, "You encouraged me to go. And it's not like I was going to stay here forever. The contract is only for six weeks."

"Yes, but only because I wanted you to be happy even though I knew I wouldn't be able to bare one single day without you. And then Tania was standing in front of my door, I took the opportunity."

Open-mouthed, Celeste looked into Mathieu's dark brown eyes - the man she had thought would be the love of her life. Stunned, she realized that she had never really known him at all.

"You had to take the opportunity?" she asked, irritation once again coloring her tone. "Mathieu listen to yourself. You are the biggest hypocrite I've ever met. It's not like you wouldn't have ever been able to get sex anymore."

"Well that's nice Mrs. Clean Slate. Mind you, I caught you with another man just an hour ago. Don't you dare lecture me about fidelity," he snapped at her.

Celeste blew a lock of hair out of her face. _Great_, she thought. _This is just great_.

She walked up to her ex so that she was facing him. Gently, she placed a hand on his shoulder.

"If this makes you feel better, it wasn't planned at all," she told him quietly.

Surprised, Mathieu glanced at her. "That may be true, but I saw the sparks flying between the both of you when he kissed you goodbye - that was certainly something I've never ever seen before."

Overwhelmed by Mathieu's most recent statement, Celeste bit her lower lip, and looked into his deep brown eyes, while her heartbeat accelerated dangerously at the thought of feeling Clark Kent's soft lips all over her body.


	14. Chapter 12

**A/N: My dear readers, a new chapter ;)**

**As usual, a big thanks to my betas tubazrcool, Dragon166, and 00Verisimilitude00, you are amazing :)**

**12.**

Celeste was very anxious. This was the biggest show she had ever been in.

Just as a girl from the makeup crew was about to finish the final touch of her makeup, Celeste heard a knock on her changing room door.

She excitedly jumped from her seat, causing the makeup artist to let out an angry cry. Unheeding of the irate woman brandishing a tube of lipstick, Celeste ran to the door and opened it.

When she realized who was standing in front of her, her excitement rapidly faded away.

"Mathieu," she said quietly.

The Australian pilot walked in and glanced at her. "Wow, Celeste, I didn't expect you to jump in circles, but a little excitement at the sight of me would have been nice. Were you expecting somebody else?" he asked while leaning in to hand her a bouquet of white roses.

The young ballet dancer looked at the floor and bit her lip. Was it really that obvious?

"Yes," she admitted.

Mathieu let out a long sigh. "Is he really that special?" he asked, rolling his eyes.

Celeste took his arm and shoved him out of her changing room.

"Thanks for the roses, but you have to go now," she said, releasing his upper arm.

Before he got a chance to retort, she shut the door in his face, leaving Mathieu confusedly standing outside.

On the other side, Celeste turned around and leaned on the door. She tilted her head back, closing her eyes to avoid the curious look the makeup lady was giving her.

Abruptly her memories of last week came flooding back into her mind. After their awkward encounter in her hotel room, they had had a very long conversation. Mathieu had admitted that he had come to Metropolis because he had realized that he didn't want to live without her. Full of regret, he had been planning to tell Celeste everything what had happened between him and Tania, and maybe even propose. However, everything had disappeared into thin air, the moment he had first entered the hotel room. After Clark had left, Mathieu had also made clear that he wouldn't let her go without a fight because their love, according to him, was still strong.

Presently in her changing room, Celeste couldn't bare Mathieu's presence at the moment. So many things had happened and she needed time to think.

The beeping sound of an incoming text pulled her out of her thoughts. She walked up to the table, picking up her cell phone to read the message as she shooed the makeup girl out of her room.

-_Can't wait to see you after the concert_-

A smile flitted over her face while she punched out an answer. Just as she pushed the 'send' button, another knock on the door indicated that she only had five minutes until the show started.

-_Can't wait, either_-

Clark tucked his cell phone back into his jacket. He nervously shifted his weight from one foot to the other as anxious thoughts shifted through his head. He hadn't been able to really talk to Celeste since their magical night. Mostly because of his two jobs, an erupting volcano in Iceland, the floods in Pakistan, and Celeste's hours-long rehearsals before the premiere of _Romeo and Juliet_.

He had only been able to see her once since then; one time after he had made the decision to pick her up after an evening rehearsal. After catching Clark's bespectacled appearance outside of the theater, Celeste had jumped up into his arms and had kissed him without permitting him to get some air. Unfortunately, a split second later, there had been a call for his help, and he had had to tell her that he had had to go. She had put her hand on his cheek after she had caught that _I have to go_ look on his face and had pressed her lips fleetingly to his one last time before releasing him with an understanding smile.

* * *

The premier of _Romeo and Juliet_ was sold out.

Hundreds of people were standing in the foyer of the _Metropolis Dance Theatre_ in anticipation of the show.

In the middle of the crowd, Clark looked on his wrist watch, curious about Jimmy's whereabouts. Martha and Jonathan were standing next to him, engaged into a conversation with Lois and Richard.

Lois, as it turned out, had been given tickets by Perry to review the show, as a sort of follow up to Clark and Jimmy's piece, but she had decided to use it as more of a date opportunity than a strictly work related occasion.

Martha and Jonathan looked concernedly over to their adopted son. They had noticed that he had been acting strangely since they had arrived in Metropolis. Privately they hoped that he had found a way to cope with the new marriage and Lois's most recent pregnancy.

Catching sight of Jimmy, arriving just five minutes before the show started, Lois said exasperatedly, "Well Olsen, it's nice you decided to finally join us."

The young photographer just smiled at her.

"Lois you are your lovely self as usual," he said to her while he placed a kiss on her cheek. "I see the hormones haven't been getting to you," he finished, grinning as he caught Richard's eye.

Lois rolled her eyes. "I love you too; now let's go before the show starts without us."

The tickets Celeste had given to them, were located in gallery, towards the front with a breathtaking glance on the stage. The big red velvet curtain hid the stage from view, and the orchestra was currently in the middle of the preparatory overture. After they had taken their seats, Jimmy looked at Clark.

"Are you excited?" he asked with a wide grin.

"Sssssshhhh," his friend tried to silence him, but unfortunately, Lois Mad Dog Lane White had already overheard what Jimmy had said.

Sitting behind them she leaned over and whispered into Clark's ear, "Why are you blushing Clarkie?"

He turned around and looked at her. The smile, which was apparent on her face, spoke volumes. Fortunately, to Clark's relief, the music started to play before he had a chance to respond.

Too caught up in his anticipation to finally see Celeste dancing again, he just shrugged and turned around in his seat to face the stage once again as the lights dimmed down, and the curtain rose.

Spotlights pointed on a band located on the left side of the stage, and a breathtaking piano solo soared out from the baby grand in the corner.

Jimmy and Clark covertly looked at each other, knowing exactly what was about to come next, for it was playing out exactly as they had seen on the day they had wanted to conduct the official interview.

Celeste was lying on the floor, covered with white lace chiffon.

After the male ballet dancers had uncovered her, the audience recognized her beautiful white chiffon dress as it softly floated up into the air as she ascended gracefully from her position on the ground.

In full costumes, make-up, and set, the scene had an unexplainable, magical effect that swept up the whole audience.

Clark, Jimmy, Lois, Richard, Jonathan, and Martha watched with rapt attention as the scene played out, and as the stage fell dark, Martha grabbed Clark's hand and smiled at him.

He smiled back, knowing how much she loved a good ballet production. Secretly he hoped that his parents would also like Celeste, as he was planning to introduce her to them right after the performance.

They spent the next ninety minutes, watching the unique ballet production. When another pop group appeared on the stage, Jimmy couldn't believe it. It was his absolute favorite band.

He elbowed Clark excitedly, once he realized what was happening. A light turned to the guitarist and the lead singer of the group. Another spotlight revealed a violin player.

Clark felt goose bumps appear all over his body as he heard the band play a brand new song. At first it was a haunting solo with competing voices from the violin and the electric guitar, but then, a moment later, the percussion joined in and the song took on a whole new edge. After a couple of minutes the beat stopped, and the audience could only hear the guitar winding down to the last few notes of the opening. The light changed into a cerulean blue and the band vanished as if by magic to the left side of the stage.

Celeste and Alexander appeared in the soft light and, offstage, the lead singer began to sing.

Alexander twirled his partner through the air in a close embrace. It didn't last, however, as they soon separated again. The male ballet dancer circled back around to Celeste and wrapped his arms around her waist as he embraced her from the back. While he was caressing her cleavage, he elegantly removed her beautiful long dress. Then he once again entwined his limbs with hers passionately.

For a split second Clark closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. He felt like _he_ would be with Celeste at that very moment. He could feel her soft skin, her beautiful hair, and her soft lips... When he opened his eyes again, the dancing pair on the stage once again became _Romeo and Juliet_, this time making love in very graceful and beautiful dancing steps.

Clark breathlessly watched them and gulped. It was very sensuous, artful and absolutely romantic how both of the dancers lay in each other's arms.

The transparent chiffon dress, Celeste was wearing, seductively emphasized her physique, and Clark's gaze stayed a bit longer on her perfect built buttocks than it should.

Suddenly it was very hot in the Metropolis Dancing Theatre.

Clark inhaled deeply and loosened his much too tight tie while 'Romeo' swirled his 'Juliet' across the stage.

Up in the gallery, Clark was dangerously close to hyperventilating. Stunned, he watched how the two dancers continued pretending to make love.

The lead singer became silent and the electric guitar started on another solo.

After their lovemaking, Alexander whirled Celeste across the stage once more, only to meet up with her again on the other side. He brushed his fingers gently through her hair, while his other hand searched for hers. They were staring deeply into each other's eyes for a moment, and continued to do so as the music lapsed into silence.

Then they both let go their hands very slowly in the deepest melancholy, and vanished from the stage in different directions.

The light faded and the curtain closed. Then there was silence in the theatre.

Jimmy glanced to Clark and was stunned about what he saw.

"Clark are you okay?" he asked.

The man sitting next to him was staring absently at the stage.

"Clark!" Jimmy spoke to his friend a bit louder this time.

Finally the reporter snapped out of it and moved his head to face his friend.

"Did you see that?" Jimmy exclaimed excitedly.

Clark nodded, as he still wasn't able to think straight. It was like Jimmy was asking him something through a thick curtain. Vaguely he caught something about drinks during the intermission, but he just shook his head. He needed to be alone to get his thoughts in line again.

* * *

The remaining ninety minutes of the production after the intermission were just as the previous ninety, stunning.

The whole time Clark only had eyes for Celeste, and in his mind the final dance only belonged to the beautiful ballet dancer.

She floated gracefully across the stage, dancing a movement just written for her. The young woman moved gracefully to the words of the lead singer. His beautiful voice and the stunning figures Celeste danced to the song were just breathtaking.

When the final notes approached, Celeste knelt slowly on the floor and stretched her hand wistfully into the air bemoaning over the loss of her 'Romeo'. Then she stabbed herself in the chest with a silver shining dagger while the curtain slowly closed in front of her.

The audience was absolutely speechless for a moment, still taking in the beautiful and unique ballet production, a masterpiece like nothing else before in this world.

Clark stood up and applauded. So did the other guests.

After a minute or so, the curtain opened once more and the performers bowed in front of the audience.

Jason Green was escorted to the stage and the audience clapped even more enthusiastically than before.

The applause roared back and forward like waves until the curtain closed and the lights came on. It was only at that point, the clapping slowly began to ebb as the first people of the audience left silently the room.

So did Clark.

He didn't even notice his friends and family anymore. All he wanted was to see Celeste, to be with her as soon as possible.

For him there was no denial anymore. He had fallen head over heels in love with the Australian ballet dancer. She had enchanted him like nobody else in his life.

As fast as he could, he walked to the dressing rooms, leaving the stunned Jimmy, Lois, Richard, and his parents in his wake. But even though he was in the possession of a press pass, there was almost no way to get through the cloud of journalists, TV-journalist, supporting dancers, and the stagehands.

Almost half an hour after the curtain had fallen, he finally managed to knock on Celeste's door.

While he waited for a response, his heartbeat accelerated until he was almost positive his heart was about to jump out of his chest.

But there was no reply.

He knocked a second, and a third time, with the same outcome. Nobody asked him to come in.

Concerned, he moved his glasses down to x-ray the room.

When Mathieu approached him from behind, he jumped a bit.

"Look who is there," the Australian pilot called out for him.

It was the first time the two men had met since their awkward encounter in Celeste's hotel room.

Clark rolled his eyes. Mathieu was just the person he wanted to see right now.

The other man pushed past the reporter and knocked on Celeste's dressing room door.

"I already tried," Clark pointed out. "Apparently she is still caught among all the journalists."

Mathieu looked at the press pass of the tall man in front of him, affixed on the breast pocked of his suit, indicating his place among the reporters.

"Shouldn't you be with the rest of them, Mr. Kent?" he asked, pointedly glaring at the pass.

Clark looked directly into Mathieu's eyes. "Maybe," he answered curtly.

Mathieu crossed his arms in front of his chest. "What are we going to do now?" he asked, visibly annoyed.

Clark was upset. Really upset. Mathieu drove him nuts and this didn't happen often to the mild-mannered reporter. "What about stopping playing games and trying to find out where Celeste is?" he snapped while he stepped back to let some of the supporting cast members pass.

"Excellent idea," Mathieu agreed. "How about you go back to your press buddies while I wait here until she shows up?"

Now Clark couldn't bear the annoying man anymore. As inconspicuously as possible, he moved his glasses down his nose, and tried once more to x-ray the changing room the moment Mathieu was distracted to step out of the way of some other ballet dancers.

Meanwhile, Clark's blood froze in his veins. The room was completely vandalized. On the floor he recognized splashes of blood, and a drag mark leading out of the room on other side.

Without even thinking about the fact that Mathieu and all the others were close to him, he super sped into the room, crashing the door in the process.

There he stood in the middle of the room, terrified, as he tried to process the scenario in front of him. An icy cold shudder moved down his spine. _What in the world did happen here_? he thought.

"Where in the world is Celeste?" Mathieu asked confusedly, jerking Clark out of his thoughts.

Clark knelt down and touched concerned the blood on the floor.

"I honestly don't know," he answered roughly, trying to piece together the pieces in his mind.


	15. Chapter 13

**A/N: My dear readers, a new update!**

**I want to take the opportunity and thank my former betas Smile Life Away and tubazrcool for their amazing work and helping me to put this story into proper English in the earlier chapters. I can understand that you are extremely busy and I appreciate your help very much. Thank you for taking this journey with me and I cross my fingers for all of your studies :)**

**This is why I also appreciate the help of my new betas who are also truly amazing in helping me to get this right! Thank you very much ****Dragon166, 00Verisimilitude00, and new in the mix the lovely and really inspiring Ashta22! *big hugs***

**13.**

Celeste opened her eyes, wincing as she felt a very sharp pain in her head. Instinctively, she closed her eyes again.

Struggling, she tried to get up. When she had finally managed to get herself into a somewhat vertical position, a bald man got up from where he had been leaning against a wall.

"Well, well, well. Look who has finally decided to join us! I was really concerned about you waking up at all," he sneered in a loud voice, looking down at her.

Celeste ducked her head down and closed her eyes once more. The harsh voice of the man was sending a sharp pain in her temple. Gently, she massaged the spot with her fingers and looked up at him. "Who are you?" she asked, confused.

The man looked at her as if she had just asked him to locate the last living dinosaur on earth.

"Who am I?" he repeated incredulously, turning around to face one of his henchmen. "Did you here that, Sam? She asked me who I am. I am _Lex Luthor_. Do you get that?"

Celeste returned his glance. "No sorry, the name doesn't ring a bell," she said slowly, running an inquisitive eye over his face.

He frowned; it was absolutely pointless to argue with this woman.

"Well, I will get this through. But only one time," his voice became a few octaves higher, while he formed a one with his index finger. "How old are you? 22? When I was sent to prison, you were just sweet 16. I'm almost as famous as you, Miss McPherson. Am I allowed to give you a compliment? You dance like a goddess. I've never seen such a beautiful performance before."

Celeste looked around, still bemused as to what was happening to her and why. "Thank you, but where am I?" She asked, resuming her efforts to regain an upright position.

Lex widened his arms and turned around. "You have the honor to be a guest on my boat."

Finally managing to stand upright, she focused on him again. "But why am I here?"

Now Lex's mouth formed into a wide grin.

"I abducted you, my precious ballet angel. To be honest, I didn't plan to kidnap you. But when I saw your flawless performance, I decided that you could accompany me and the others in order to entertain us on our new island."

"What?" Celeste asked tentatively, fear overcoming her.

"Here, let me show you what I mean," he yelled out excited, grabbed her hand and dragged her over to the huge study desk on the other side of the room. There, he forced her to sit down and took a suitcase made from black velvet out of the drawer of the study desk. He looked up at her briefly, a weird gleam in his eye, and opened up the case to pull out what was hidden inside.

Celeste's eyes widened, as she noticed the most beautiful crystals she had ever seen in her life. _Wow_, she thought, _Aunt Polly would kill to get one of these for her glass sculpture works_.

Lex picked one of them up and turned it. The crystal reflected in the most beautiful colors.

"Miss McPherson, what do you know about alien technology?" he asked, his smile getting more and more maniacal.

"What?" she asked in terror.

"These crystals here imbibe the surroundings they come in contact with. Only one little fraction of one of them can built an entirely new island," he explained to her in a very calm voice.

"What are you talking about?" Celeste asked, seriously concerned about Mr. Luthor's mental health.

"Land, Miss McPherson, land. It's the only thing they don't produce anymore."

While he was smiling like a little child who had just got the world's greatest Christmas present, he grabbed for a remote control, lying on the desk in front of Celeste, and pressed some bottoms on it.

A map of the Earth suddenly showed up on a screen on the wall opposite to them.

"See," he said, extremely excited. "If I use this technology, there will be lots of new land." He pressed another button of the remote. A new screen showed up with a new landmass colored in. Then he pressed again.

In the most recent picture, Celeste noticed, that the landmass had grown bigger, replacing the existing countries such as the USA, North Africa, and parts of Europe.

When Celeste finally realized what he was talking about, her eyes widened in horror. "But thousands of people will die," she pointed out, terrified.

"Billions," he corrected her and laughed. "And I will make a huge profit off of it. What do you think an acre of land will be worth?"

Celeste could have sworn her fear was nearly palpable by now. "You can't do that," she said, almost crying.

"Yes I can, and I certainly will, and nothing, NOTHING will stop me."

"But the marines, the military, …Superman…," Celeste started to argue.

"WRONG," Lex screamed at her.

Once he saw that she was not in any state to argue, he turned around and walked over to the wall where a wooden box was standing on top of a bookshelf. With a satisfactory grin, he carried it to Celeste and opened it.

The Australian woman could see a cylindrical green crystal lying in it. Lex grabbed it and rolled it in his hand.

"This, my little ballet angel, will make sure that our Man of Steel will not interrupt us."

Concerned, Celeste glanced at the object. "What is that?"

"This is our life insurance and a death sentence for Superman."

Celeste's heart skipped a beat. "What?" she whispered in shock.

"Well I don't assume you know this, coming from the far land Down Under, but this green crystal can kill him. Superman hasn't shown up often in your hometown, has he?" Luthor asked, leering at her.

Blinking rapidly, and close to hyperventilation, Celeste shook her head mutely.

"That's a real shame," Luthor said sadly, "I for myself truly adore Australia, Miss McPherson."

"Boss, we are at the coordinates," a voice from the speakers suddenly interrupted his speech. "Forty nine point oh degrees north and one hundred ten degrees point three east."

Lex turned to the young ballet dancer and grinned satisfied.

"I am sorry to interrupt our extremely interesting conversation, but I have to create a new country. Don't worry, you will be able to see it, once it has grown into _Luthorland_," he said, wrapping the crystals back into the black velvet and packing them in a water proof backpack. After nodding to her, he went at a quick peace to the upper deck.

When he had finally left the room, Celeste looked quickly around.

There was a computer on the desk and an USB-modem inserted in it, indicating that there was a connection to the internet. She typed in the "Daily Planet" in the search engine as fast as she could. After a fraction of a second, the website popped up. Relieved, she clicked on it and searched on the employee website for Clark's email-address.

When all of the sudden the door opened, she almost jumped out of her chair.

She rapidly typed in the coordinates one of Luthor's henchmen had shouted over the intercom with her name and a "be careful" underneath, into the email.

Just a fraction after she had clicked the send button, the screen went black.

Celeste looked up over the computer screen and noticed one of Lex Luthor's helpers. A shiver coursed down her spine as she took in how close he was, and a sickening feeling settled in her stomach as she saw that he was holding a power cable in one of his huge hands. The one that belonged to the computer she had just used.

Desperately, Celeste bit her lip. There was no way the message had found its way to the recipient.

"My boss said that he wants me to watch you, my little beauty," the man explained to her in a spooky and calm voice, "And don't try to play games. I have a very long knife, and believe me, I would love to play with you," he sneered, a broad grin stretched wide on his ugly face. As he spoke, he extended his hand in order to grab her. Celeste flinched out of the way, but he was too fast for her. Catching her upper arm in a vice-like grip, he pulled her up from the chair to kiss her. As soon as she felt his awful breath on her mouth, she screamed as loud as she could.

"What are you doing?" a harsh voice interrupted him.

He instantly let the ballet dancer go and walked away.

The young black-haired woman walked to Celeste. "I am sorry. He is not allowed to touch you," she said, jerking her head to indicate the man who was sullenly standing a ways off.

Celeste looked into the woman's eyes. Somehow she had the feeling as if she had seen her before, but she could not remember where or when.

"My name is Kitty Kowalski," the woman introduced herself.

Celeste blew a lock of hair out of her face. This woman she could handle, if not the big, ugly guy or the maniacal baldie.

"What is going on here?" she demanded for the millionth time.

Kitty walked to the _Steinmann_ piano, located on her left side of the room and pressed the A-key. She shrugged a little as she thought about David, the man Jason had accidently killed with a piano while he had been trying to help his mother to escape Lex Luthor on this very boat almost a year ago.

"Lex is obsessed with real estate. He found out that the crystals, Superman's crystals, are able to create new land mass. He stole them from Superman and the Kryptonite from the Metropolis Museum and he will now create a new island, half Kryptonite and half terrestrial material with them. I assume you don't know what this means, but I can assure you, it definitively means nothing good for our godlike hero," Kitty explained with a wide grin on her face.

All of the sudden, Celeste felt really sick. "You and your lover are insane," she realized out loud.

"Yes, I know, and I love it," Kitty agreed, while she grabbed Celeste's elbow and dragged her to the upper deck of the boat to join the others.

"I want you to watch this. Lex and I will make history today."


	16. Chapter 14

**A/N: My dear readers, a new action filled chapter, close to SR with a twist…**

**Thank you very much Dragon166, 00Verisimilitude00, and Ashta22!**

**14.**

Clark sat at his desk at the Planet, trying to work out what had happened to Celeste. He was fairly sure that the blood in Celeste's changing room was indeed hers.

While the Metropolis PD was about to investigate the incident, Clark and his friends prepared to carry out some investigations on their own.

As Clark worked at the computer, Mathieu and Alexander stood behind him and tried to help with suggestions, listing names of people who Celeste had been in contact with over the last couple of months.

Richard and Lois were at the desk next to them, trying to find out anything about Celeste's dancing colleagues.

But every trail they found turned out to be a dead end.

Sighing, Clark set back on his chair and rubbed his temples. It was hopeless, as there was no one in the entire world who had a motive to kidnap a sweet charming ballet dancer from Australia.

He closed his eyes and tried to locate her heartbeat with his superhearing.

When he heard a big bang, he looked up. What in the world had caused this strange sound?

All the other journalists looked around as well when suddenly the whole building started to shake.

Unnoticed from the others in the room, Clark jumped out of the bullpen as fast as he could, and into the elevator, where he quickly changed into Superman.

When he finally arrived in the streets of Metropolis, he couldn't believe it. The earthquake had split a huge crack through the whole city.

People were panicking.

Even as he looked on, another quake rocked the streets. Superman looked up and saw a man falling out of a crane. The hero flew up, caught the man midair and descended, spending only enough time to set him back on his feet. Surveying the devastation around him in a fraction of a second, Superman realized that all the windows of a skyscraper had burst and the glass was about to fall on the street where hundreds of pedestrians were standing. He flew to the building and turned around to melt the glass with his heat-vision.

* * *

When the quake had finally stopped, Richard and the others looked at each other.

Since when had there been earthquakes in Metropolis?

Lois, who sensed a big story coming upon them, typed in a few commands on her computer, while Richard jumped to the next phone to call Jason's school. After he had talked to his son's teacher, he let out a sigh of relief and signaled to Lois that Jason was okay.

She also sighed and looked back to the computer screen. When a marine map showed up, she covered her mouth with her hand in surprise and horror.

"Oh my..." she said.

"What's wrong, sweetheart?" Richard asked.

"I can't believe this. This is the most recent trace of the Hydrographic Bureau." She pointed to the screen. "Look, just a couple of minutes ago they detected a new landmass fifty sea miles out of Metropolis."

"What?" Richard, Alexander and Mathieu managed to say in unison.

Lois nodded and pointed on the computer screen when the incoming email beep came from Clark's computer.

_Where is he anyway?_ Lois thought, and walked to his computer to read the email.

She gasped as she understood who had sent the email. "It's _Celeste _guys!" Richard and Mathieu walked over to the computer to read the e-mail over her shoulder. "This is a message from her, but I don't know what the numbers mean," Lois continued.

"These are coordinates," they said in unison.

Mathieu grabbed his jacket and turned around, but Richard held him back and gave him the keys to his seaplane. "Here. You will be faster with my plane."

The Australian pilot put his hand on Richard's shoulder, and after a thankful nod, he ran out of the bullpen.

* * *

Celeste could not believe what she was seeing.

After Lex Luther's men had prepared the rocket, they fired the two crystals into the sea. Celeste stood rooted on the bow of the ship, completely stunned, as she watched the sea churn ominously and a dark cloud gather around the spot where the crystals had vanished into the water. As the ocean got rougher, Lex commanded everyone to jump into the helicopter located at the back of the ship.

Ascending into the sky, Celeste could see the full consequences of Lex Luthor's actions. The new island was now approaching the surface.

The slick, hexagonal terrain appearing all around her was black and looked very strange. In between the tall pillars, Celeste could recognize green spots of Kryptonite. A shiver ran down her spine.

_This can't be good_.

The helicopter circled over the island to find a perfect spot to land. After half an hour, the pilot finally found a large enough open surface between the pillars of black and green rocks. After the pilot had landed the helicopter, Lex grabbed Celeste's hair, dragged her out of the helicopter, and shoved her into one of the puddles, which had been formed out of ocean water.

* * *

After Superman had finally managed to sort out the chaos from the earthquake, he ascended and hovered midair to find out what had caused the shock. He frowned as he noticed a dark cloud over the ocean. Changing course midflight, he super-sped to the location and finally realized what had happened.

For a second, his mind went completely numb. This wasn't possible... It was insanity to even think that...

Shocked, Superman could not believe that one of his crystals had caused the new formation of the island. He scanned his surrounding for living subjects. It didn't take him long to find Lex Luthor.

With a loud cracking sound, he landed in front of the villain who was less than impressed that the hero had finally shown up.

"Hey Superman," he said, with a big smile curled on his smug and ruthless mouth. "Finding anything familiar?"

"You have something that belongs to me," Superman growled.

"Well do you like it? I have to say I feel really comfortable although it seems a bit... ALIEN," the bald man jeered.

While he was looking at Lex, Superman realized that something wasn't quite right.

He felt a sharp pain in his head, followed by thick pearls of sweat running down his temple. Nevertheless, he walked up to the man in front of him.

When he finally was eye to eye with Lex, his attention got sidetracked to Kitty who looked at him with a wide grin.

Superman instandly realized who she was, but when he saw Celeste in handcuffs, still in her ballet gown from the performance, and a thick tape over her moth, next to the woman he had saved from her broken car, his blood froze instandly in his veines. He formed her name with his lips. Concern apparent in his eyes.

Celeste tried to warn him. She really tried, but when Lex Luthor's punch hit him, Superman lost his balance and rolled down the rocks breaking some of them.

The young ballet dancer started to scream through her gag even though she knew it was useless.

Meanwhile, Superman tried to get up again but finally realized that the island was also made of Kryptonite. As he braced himself on the ground to get up, he was startled to feel pain skirting over his whole palm and horrified to see little scrapes running all over his fingers. He looked at his own scraped fingernails with a sense of dread and astonishment.

Lex delegated his men to beat up the man he hated the most in the entire world. He didn't have to tell his criminals twice. They walked to Superman and started to beat him up without any mercy or hesitation.

Thick tears rolled down Celeste's cheeks, but somehow she managed to get rid of the tape over her mouth. She turned around and paused. Kitty was standing behind her, and Celeste was surprised to see that the woman's eyes, focused intently on Superman, were wet with tears.

Over and over Lothor's henchmen punched and kicked Superman violently. He could only try to escape by crawling from them, but the huge amount of Kryptonite did not allow him to go any further. At the edge of the cliffs Superman finally tried to stand up. He rose into a kneeling position, not realizing that Lex Luthor was about to approach him from behind. The bald man grabbed him and rammed a knife made out of a huge Kryptonite splinter into his right side. Superman screamed out in agony and pain.

"And now fly!" Lex Luthor commanded and broke the blade just above Superman's skintight suit.

Celeste's scream echoed through the piles of the alien sculptures. It rose in volume as she watched Superman get up for one last time and then fall down the cliffs.

"I know now, where I saw you before," the young ballet dancer screamed at Kitty. "He saved you when you almost drove into a cloud of people with your broken car."

Kitty looked at Celeste. "How do you know?" she asked.

"I was there," Celeste retorted. "Is this your way of thanking him for saving your life?"

Kitty bit her thumbnail, as she evaluated what Celeste had said. "Do you love him?" she asked after a moment.

"What?" Celeste asked, puzzled.

"Don't lie to me. I saw the way you both looked at each other. Do you love him?" Kitty repeated impatiently.

The ballet dancer looked at the spot where Superman had vanished into the sea only a couple of minutes ago.

The last couple of weeks had been the strangest in her entire life.

Her Australian boyfriend had cheated on her the minute she had left the country. In Metropolis, she had not only played the _Juliet_, her biggest dream coming true, but also met the most amazing man in the entire world, and he wasn't even from the planet Earth. After they had spent their magical night together, she had always thought of him. _Every_ single minute of_ every_ day. When she saw an article about Superman in the newspaper, her heart always skipped a view beats. And then, when Clark had shown up after one of her evening rehearsals to pick her up, the only thing she had wanted to do was to kiss him and stay in his arms until the end of time. Did she love him? Her heart skipped another beat when she finally realized it.

"Yes," she whispered.

Kitty smiled almost imperceptibly and looked furtively around. Lex had gone back to his henchmen, absolutely thrilled about the fact that they had killed the world's greatest hero. She knew what it meant to love a mighty man, as she truly loved Lex, even though she knew he had his flaws. But this, the strange island he had built out of Superman's crystals, was not something she was thrilled about at all. Kitty was a girl who loved pure indulgence and the island didn't look comfortable. There wasn't even a shower, hotel, swimming pool or manicure salon in sight. No, this wasn't what Lex had promised her when he had talked about his plans. As a matter of fact, she hated this place and she wouldn't allow Lex to build one more island from the crystals.

As fast as she could, she grabbed the backpack with the crystals, lying just a few feet away from her, and gave it to Celeste who was looking at her, surprise evident in her eyes. Kitty also got the keys for the handcuffs out of Luthor's coat, she was still carrying in her arm, and pulled the ballet dancer by her hair to the edge of the rock.

There, Kitty yelled at Celeste.

"You damn bitch. You will _never_ tell me again that my hairstyle is ugly!" she shouted loudly, secretively giving Celeste the key and lunging to hit her with a hard slap. So hard, in fact, that Celeste stumbled and also fell over the edge of the cliffs.

When Lex realized what Kitty had done, he ran up to her, screaming like the maniac he was, and threw himself off the edge of the cliffs while reaching down with his hands in order to catch the backpack.

But both, the memory crystals and Celeste had already vanished into the rough sea.


	17. Chapter 15

**A/N: My dear readers, the new chapter for you…**

**Bellarase, Thank you for reviewing every chapter :)**

**Thank you very much Dragon166, 00Verisimilitude00, and Ashta22!**

**15.**

As Celeste hit the water all her breath was pushed out of her lungs. She struggled to reach the surface to take a gasp of air. The waves crashed over her, and she was pulled down deeper into the ocean, almost losing the key in her hands. It took her a couple of minutes to resurface, which was a very difficult task with her hands still tied together.

She only was able to breathe for a short amount of time before her waterlogged clothes and the heavy backpack dragged her underwater again. It was impossible to even think clearly as her breath caught in her throat and water teased around her mouth, trying to force its entry. Was she going to pass out? She couldn't. No. But… her head was feeling light, and her fingers were numbing…

She fought with all her strength to break through the surface, kicking fiercely to propel her body upwards. After a few grueling seconds, Celeste accomplished her goal and, bobbing precariously on the surface, she started to fumble with the key to open the handcuffs. Just as Celeste thought she might slip under water again, she felt those wretchedly heavy handcuffs drop away.

A small mercy.

She slipped into the straps of the backpack and secured it on her back, all the while looking for the smallest sign of Superman's red cape swirling in the water or his shining head of jet black hair. A couple of minutes later, she caught sight of him, also struggling to stay over water just like her.

She swam over to him as fast as she could and grabbed the edge of his cape before he could vanish into the deep dark sea. Grunting softly with the effort, Celeste pulled with all of her strength on the red fabric and clutched at it, trying to keep its wearer mostly above the water.

After a few tormenting moments, Celeste noticed a shallow spot not far away from them. She swam over to the area and pulled Superman onto the rocky shoal. He was still unconscious and soaked in saltwater. Celeste started to panic; her hands fluttered over his almost unmoving chest and pale face in her desperation. What if she wouldn't be able to help him?

"Wake up!" she yelled at him, but nothing happened.

Suddenly she heard the sound of a plane not too far away from them, and, closing her eyes, Celeste prayed that it wasn't Lex Luthor's henchmen looking for her and her crystal laden backpack.

* * *

Mathieu had been searching for Celeste for over two hours. The island frightened him. What did all it mean?

Restless, he looked around for any sign of his ex-girlfriend. Finally he spotted her on a shallow bank. But she was not alone.

Stunned, he realized who was with her.

Mathieu's eyes briefly skimmed the water around them as he evaluated where he could land safely. He circled the space for a moment, spraying Celeste and Superman with even more water as he touched down a few feet away from them. As soon as the propeller had slowed, he jumped out of the plane and swam to Celeste.

Once he was close enough, he pulled her into his arms. "What in the world happened to you?" he asked, looking at Superman lying in front of them.

"Mathieu!" she hugged him with trembling arms, in that instant forgetting that she was supposed to be angry with him.

"Will you please tell me what is going on?" he asked, trying to get some sense out of her.

"It's a long story. We have to get Superman out of here as soon as possible. He will die if we don't move," she shouted at him, trying to be heard over the roaring sound of the waves surrounding them.

"But I thought he's _invulnerable_," the pilot said, puzzled.

"Not at the moment," Celeste said shortly in a loud voice.

Mathieu nodded and helped her to get Superman into the seaplane.

When they had finally managed to get in, the pilot started the engine and drove the seaplane into position. There, he hesitated for a couple of seconds as an increasing number of rocks emerged from the surface of the water.

"Go!" Celeste screamed, holding Superman's head in her lap. He was still unconscious and very pale.

Mathieu gulped and pulled the cyclic control in front of him. He seriously hoped they could make it without the help of the Man of Steel. Gritting his teeth, Mathieu could feel the plane fighting against the waves and after a minute it bounced up, only to dip back down to the surface of the ocean again. He knew they needed calmer water to achieve full lift off, and his eyes widened when he realized the rocks shooting out of the water just in front of them. Mathieu released the throttle a bit.

The plane shook as it jumped back to the water, breaking a piece of outlying rock.

Mathieu turned around to check out if there was something broken on the plane and pulled the cyclic control as hard as he could in his direction. There was no way he would give up. Too much was at stake and the sea seemed to be just calm enough to take off.

When the plane was finally ascending slowly into air, he let out a heavy sigh of relief.

He looked back at Celeste.

She was sitting on the floor and was sweeping wet strands of dark black hair out of Superman's face. Mathieu noted with concern that Superman looked very sick. As Mathieu watched, Celeste leaned a bit over Superman and examined his right side.

A two inch long piece of Kryptonite stuck out of his torso.

Celeste stood up and walked to the toolbox. After a couple of minutes, she finally held up a pair of tweezers she needed to remove the silver of Kryptonite. She circled back around the small cabin to kneel in front of Superman and secured the prongs around the Kryptonite. Celeste glanced briefly at his closed eyes, inhaled deeply and pulled at the green mineral.

All of a sudden Superman opened his eyes and let out a loud moan of pain.

Celeste bit her lower lip and pulled on the piece with as much force as she could muster.

The man on the floor screamed in agony, but Celeste firmly retained her grip on the piece of Kryptonite and yanked it out of his body as quickly as she could. Immediately he stopped thrashing and sighed in relief.

Celeste looked at the neon piece of Kryptonite, almost a foot long, and shook her head. Muttering to herself, she walked to the door of the plane and opened it.

Mathieu cried out in alarm, but she didn't pay him any attention. Instead, she focused all her energy on throwing the Kryptonite out of the plane and as far away from Superman as humanly possible. After she had made sure that it sunk below the waves, Celeste closed the door again, a pretty hard feat to accomplish midair.

She walked back to Superman and found that he was already able to sit up.

"How did you find us?" he asked Mathieu, his voice shaking as his gaze turned from Celeste to Mathieu and back again.

The two Australians didn't answer him, but Superman noticed the concern in their eyes.

Celeste helped him stand. He still felt very dizzy and the pain in his right side was almost unbearable, surely a sign that there was still a large amount of Kryptonite inside him.

Superman smiled and opened the door of the plane again. He paused before he took off, sparing a glance at Mathieu. "Thank you!" he said to the pilot gratefully.

Mathieu just nodded in response.

"What are you doing? You are hurt," Celeste managed to say to Superman while looking him up and down. She was still quite scared for his health.

He walked up to her, and as he moved the wind blew his wet hair into his face. He held up his hand to cup her face, and she felt with a thrill of terror that it was icy cold.

"Thank you Celeste," he said before he kissed her. As they broke apart, he brushed a wet lock of hair out of her face and added in a low voice, "_I_ love you!" With that, he vanished into the air.

Celeste followed him to the door of the plane, pausing on the threshold as she looked out into the storm filled sky.

Mathieu screamed, for one wild moment thinking that she would jump out of the pane right after Superman. But the young woman stopped at the door and tried to spot the man she loved in the sky.

He was already over the clouds, trying to absorb as much sunlight as he could.

Superman knew that he would most likely not survive what he was about to do, and he felt sad about not being able to see Jason growing up. He was further depressed about the fact that he had to leave Celeste behind.

After a couple of minutes in the sun he felt much better than before.

He turned around and looked through the clouds and even through the ocean. Bracing himself, he inhaled as much air as he could and closed his eyes. This was one of the hardest tasks he had ever faced in his entire life. He rocketed down to Earth, all the while concentrating his heat vision on the seabed.

* * *

Thick tears rolled down Celeste's cheeks as she fumbled to fasten her seatbelt.

She looked to Mathieu and was stunned to see his astonishment.

He turned his head and gave her a headset so they could converse.

"Please don't tell me I punched Superman in your hotel room," Mathieu asked after she had adjusted the headset.

Celeste looked at him and shrugged.

He rolled his eyes.

"Great," he managed to say.

"How did you find us?" Celeste asked.

"Lois found your email to Clark. We realized that you found out the coordinates of your whereabouts. Then Richard gave me his seaplane."

Now Celeste was stunned.

Lois and Richard had been a part of Superman's and her rescue? Even more tears coursed down her cheeks.

"What do you think Superman will do now?" Mathieu asked, looking into Celeste's eyes.

She shrugged again.

"I think he will try to get rid of this damn island."

"Do you think he can do that?"

Deep in her own thoughts, the young woman looked out of the window. Underneath them the island was still growing at an alarming speed.

"I don't know," she replied after a moment in a whisper, as Mathieu steered the seaplane away from the island.


	18. Chapter 16

**A/N: My dear readers, right on schedule a new chapter for you…**

**Bellarase and Belle08, Thank you sooo much for reviewing!**

**Thank you very much my amazing betas Dragon166, 00Verisimilitude00, and Ashta22!**

**16**

One hour later, Mathieu landed the seaplane safely at the peer located at Metropolis harbor. He switched off the engine and looked at Celeste.

"You look like a mess," he told her bluntly.

"I'm fine," she tried to convince him, even though she felt anything but fine. The uncertainty about what was happening to Superman was driving her nuts.

Mathieu grabbed her left hand and squeezed it. "You are not fine and I insist you going into the hospital to get checked out. You were in the cold water for too long, and, by the way, the gash on your left temple needs to be stitched up."

"What?" Celeste asked while putting her fingers to the injured spot. She hadn't even noticed that she was hurt.

"Come on. Let me help you," Mathieu begged, as he assisted her out of the plane.

"I am not going to the hospital. For the last time, I'm fine," Celeste said loudly to Mathieu, annoyed, but all of the sudden she felt very dizzy.

Mathieu was just able to catch her, as she fainted on the spot.

* * *

A rhythmic beeping catapulted Celeste out of her dreamless sleep.

She opened her eyes. _Gosch_, she thought, _the pain is almost unbearable_. She turned her head and realized that she was lying in a bed in a closed off area, surrounded with curtains.

"I'm sure she will be fine in a couple of days, but until then I would suggest plenty of rest and the recommended dose of painkillers," a male baritone voice said.

Celeste heard footsteps approaching, and sure enough, a second later the curtains parted.

A man poked his head into the room, and she was finally able to attach a face to the voice.

"Ah you woke up," the emergency doctor noticed.

Celeste tried to sit up. Mathieu jumped next to her and helped her to get into a sitting position.

"How long was I passed out?" she asked the doctor.

He looked on his wrist-watch and picked up her patient chart attached to the end of the bed. "Almost an hour," he said carefully, looking up to inspect her closely. "You had a pretty bad bump on your head. Do you want to tell me how that happened?"

Celeste bit her lower lip.

_Well lets start_, she thought. _I got kidnapped from a guy named Lex Luthor who happened to have the most advanced alien technology in this world.? Yes, you heard right, Lex Luthor kidnapped me, and Superman came to the rescue. But our villain had a plan B, called Kryptonite. Have you heard about it? Just between you and me, this stuff can __actually__ kill Superman, and Lex Luthor did try to kill him when he stabbed him with a sliver of the rock. I got hit by Kitty, Luthor's hooker. She couldn't bear to watch the Man of Steel die and helped me to escape. I know, doesn't that sound fantastic? But bear with me. It gets even better. My ex-lover here, that's right Mr. Perontier, saved us. Superman and me. How cool is that? He had a little help from Lois Lane White and Richard White. You don't know them? They both are the star reporters of the Daily Planet. Anyway, when we finally managed to escape that damn island, I had to pull the splinter out of Superman's torso. Yeah, go figure! Me, an Australian ballet dancer, doing unapproved medical procedures on an extraterrestrial being. But guess what? It helped. He got better. Thank you, yes, I tried to do my best. But then Superman vanished to save us all from this insane Lex-Luthor-Guy and I still don't know where he is and what he is doing now... Gosh Celeste, they will stick you into a strait jacket when you tell them anything about what really happened!_

"I tripped over and hurt my head," Celeste said instead. _This is not really a lie_, she thought, as she had fallen from the cliffs.

"Celeste," Mathieu disagreed, as he looked deep into her eyes.

She just shrugged, mutely telling him not to contradict her. There was just no way she could tell anybody about what had really happened on that island.

The doctor was still suspicious. "Are you sure this is what happened?" he asked shrewdly.

The young woman only nodded.

"Fine," the physician said. "You should take it easy..." he started, but stopped speaking when his beeper went off.

Confused, he looked around. He heard running footsteps out of the door, and Celeste could see that doctors and nurses were hurrying down the hallway. Her doctor quickly strode to the door and waylaid a male nurse that was moving quickly with the crowd. "What's going on?" the doctor asked.

"They're bringing in Superman and apparently he is in a very bad shape," the man said while running to the entrance of the emergency department.

Celeste's breath stopped.

She jumped out of the bed as if she was in trance and followed the two men with very wobbly legs, Mathieu just behind her.

When she came to the door of the emergency area, the ambulance arrived.

Two minutes later a few EMTs entered the emergency room with Superman lying unconscious on a gurney, while one of the doctors gave him chest compression.

When they had finally secured the gurney in one of the rooms, two members of the emergency response team pulled off Superman's suit and put ECG-dots on his chest.

Most hospital workers gradually stopped what they were doing and watched the proceedings concernedly.

Celeste stood in front of the huge window, separating her from the action, and put her hand on the glass, totally devastated over what she was seeing. When she noticed that the ECG monitor did not trace a heartbeat she screamed, horrified.

Mathieu hugged her, holding her as she was on the verge of breaking down. But she had to stay and watch. There was no way she would leave the man she loved alone in this situation. She needed to know what happened.

Distracted by her fear for Superman, Celeste didn't notice the huge piece of Kryptonite one of the surgical residents pulled out of Superman's right side.

Meanwhile, one of the doctors realized that there was no ECG trace. He immediately made the decision to defibrillate, while another emergency doctor tried to place an iv-line into one of Superman's veins, but the needle did not penetrate his skin. It bent down at an angle like it was made of rubber.

The doctor with the defibrillator soon cleared all of the staff from the gurney and gave the command to shock the patient, but the only thing that happened was a short circuit in the whole hospital.

The hospital staff looked helplessly at each other as they waited for the emergency generator to kick in. Nobody knew what to do or how to help Superman. When the power finally returned, the heart monitor still didn't show a sign of any heartbeat.

Celeste now was utterly shocked. She wanted to go in there, to slap some sense into the doctors, to do something. Anything. But all she could do was watching in horror as the doctors gave up and simply left the room.

Mathieu needed all of his strength to hold her back from entering the room where all of the sudden two policemen were positioned in order to protect the hero.

Celeste's friend grabbed her by the shoulders.

"Let me go in there right now!" she yelled at him, glaring at him fiercely.

"Celeste, listen to me," Mathieu commanded sternly, "You. Can. Not. Go. In. There. Do you understand? You can't blow his cover. You need to calm down. It's not helping him when you freak out like this."

Thick tears rolled down Celeste's cheeks.

"What am I supposed to do now?" she asked hopelessly.

She turned and slid down the wall to the floor, unable to hold back the pain of what she had just witnessed.

Mathieu sat next to her, hugged her and pulled her as close as he could. Unable to process any of the experiences of that day anymore, the young woman fainted the second time in Mathieu's arms.


	19. Chapter 17

**A/N: My dear readers, the next chapter for you ****:) **

**Thank you very much, Dragon166, 00Verisimilitude00, and Astha22 for your suggestions and constructive criticism…**

**17.**

When Celeste woke up, she found herself once again in a hospital bed. But this time _nothing_ could hold her back anymore.

She shot out of her bed like a firecracker. This surprised even Mathieu, who was sitting next to her bedside.

"Where is he?" she asked with terrified eyes.

Mathieu took her right hand and looked at her. "Celeste. You need rest. Plenty of it."

She looked straight into his eyes. Her glance was a mixture out of fear, fury and anxiety over the state of the man she loved so much.

"You do not want to stand in my way right now, Mathieu Perontier. Where did they take him?" she demanded.

"Please, please sit down. We need to talk," the Australian pilot implored, trying to calm her down.

Quickly she slapped his hand away and walked out of the room. She needed to know what had happened to Superman, and nothing in this world could stop her from finding out where they were keeping him. Mathieu followed, tentatively holding out her dress, as she was only dressed in a hospital gown. Even this didn't bother her.

Outside the room, she looked around and inspected the hospital, eyes peeled for any sign of policemen or harried doctors. Half an hour later, when she finally located the room where they had brought Superman, her breath hitched in her chest at the sight of him.

He was also dressed in a hospital gown. The heart monitor showed some signs of a heartbeat, but the truly wrong aspect of the whole scene that made Celeste's heart stop in her chest was that Lois Lane White and the little boy, she had seen at the airport, were sitting at Superman's bedside.

Slowly, the young woman approached the room, while a single tear rolled down her cheek. Celeste was extremely relieved that he was still alive, but at the same time completely devastated that it wasn't her place to help him get better.

Before she could enter the room, a police officer reached out a hand to hold her back. "Sorry ma'am, but you are not allowed to be here. I will have to ask you to leave now. Please go back into your room."

This was when Lois looked up.

From across the room, Lois met Celeste's watery gaze. The young ballet dancer noticed the tears in the reporter's eyes and a moment later, Celested tore her eyes away and looked to her left to meet Mathieu who had been deliberately dogging her footsteps ever since she left her own room.

When Lois realized who the man next to Celeste was, she got up from her chair and walked over to them. "Mathieu. I didn't know you are back," she said while wiping the tears out of her eyes.

Mathieu didn't respond immediately, instead he searched into his pocket and gave Lois the key of Richard's seaplane. "Hi Lois," he said after he deposited the key in her palm, "This is Celeste McPherson," he indicated the very pale woman standing next to him.

Lois's eyes widened in surprise as she took in Celeste, but she wasted no time as her reporter instinct instantly kicked in. "So, he finally found you," she said, looking Celeste up and down. "What happened?"

Mathieu hugged Celeste who was still looking with wide eyes in the direction of the hurt man in the hospital bed. He quickly stepped in, explaining to Lois, "She's okay. Just had a little joyride with one of her fans who turned out not to have enough gasoline in his ship's engine."

Suspicious, the brunette looked into Celeste's eyes. This girl had just been too close to the coordinates of the new island to be all coincidental. "And where did you get that injury?" Lois asked, indicating the scar on Celeste's left temple.

The only thing Celeste could manage to do was looking helplessly into direction of the heart monitor, attached to Superman's chest. What was she supposed to say? Tell the truth? Deny everything? _Please, please help me, I don't know what to do_, she thought while panicking. She had no idea if Lois knew that Clark was Superman, or if she knew about Clark's weakness to Kryptoninte, or even worse, if she knew how dangerous Lex Luthor really was, _well this she should know with her job_, Celeste thought in between the jumble and the unbearable pain in her head.

When Jason looked at her, an imperceptible smile forming on his lips, Celeste finally snapped out of her thoughts. "Silly me, I tripped over something on the boat. Mathieu told me you are the one who found my email to Clark?" Celeste said nervously, while trying to conjure up a smile. _Try to get her off the lead, _she thought.

"Yes," Lois replied slowly. "And it looked to me as if you were in a really _dangerous_ situation."

Now Celeste smiled even more and reached up to fiddle with a curl of her hair. "Well if you call running dry of champagne a dangerous situation, than yes," she answered jokingly, at the same moment wanting to slap herself for this stupid answer. _Celeste, get it right! This is Lois Lane, Pulizer Prize winner and one of the best investigative reporters in the world! Concentrate if you want to protect Clark! Or she will never buy your story_…

Lois bristled the behavior of the bitchy little ballet dancer. Who was she to be standing there in front of her, smiling and joking while Superman was comatose? She knew Clark somehow had fallen for her, but she was shocked at his taste in women. What did he find attractive in this little Aussie chick whose only concern was where to find the next party?

"You know," Lois spat, "There are more important things in this world than partying around. Look up in the bed there. Superman risked his life for us today. And you? Your only concern is having as much fun as possible! I really feel sorry for you that you cannot appreciate the deeper things in life!" she turned around and walked back to sit on the chair she was sitting before.

Celeste bit her lower lip. She certainly had something different in mind when she had thought about the first encounter with the mother of Superman's son.

Mathieu realized that the situation was about to escalate. That is why he pulled Celeste back and waved Lois goodbye, who shot a very angry glance at the young ballet dancer.

On their way back to Celeste's room, they bumped into Richard.

"Hi Mathieu," the reporter said.

"Hi Richard. Thank you for helping me finding this young lady," Mathieu said, as he put an arm around Celeste's waist.

"Not a problem," Richard responded, "I'm really glad that you are all right. When we found out you weren't in your dressing room, we were all concerned, especially Clark. I've never seen him that devastated before. What happened out there?" he asked curiously.

Celeste looked back and forth between the two men. What was she supposed to say? She didn't want to upset Lois' husband too. This is why she made the decision to stick to the truth as close as possible.

"I was on a boat with one of my greatest fans. The ocean got a little rough and when my host had to mind the navigation of the ship, I somehow panicked and wrote the e-mail to Clark."

_Great Celeste_, she thought. _Two different stories for Lois and Richard. And a lousy one for Richard, at that. You have to concentrate to get this right._

All of the sudden, she felt Mathieu's hand in hers. "Well… I think we should let this beautiful lady rest a bit," he said. "After all she fell and injured herself due to the rough sea."

Richard nodded and turned to leave. "That's okay. I hope you will feel better soon." When he was a few steps away, he turned and paused, sensing something was amiss. "What did you say the ship's name was?" he asked casually over his shoulder.

Without even thinking about the consequences this revelation could cause, Celeste blurted out, "The _Gertrude_."

* * *

Stunned, Richard walked into the room where Lois and Jason were watching over Superman. He grabbed a chair and sat down just next to his wife.

"How is he?" he asked even though he could see that Superman's heartbeat was under ten beats per minute.

Lois just shook her head and Richard pulled her into a hug.

"Don't you think we should spare Jason from this?"

The boy turned around to face his adoptive father. "I want to stay," he said clearly.

Richard just sighed. "Well okay than. But only if it is okay with you, Lois."

The brunette nodded and fished Richard's plane key out of her skirt pocket.

"Mathieu gave this back. He found Celeste. Can you imagine? She was on a boat with a fan and was enjoying herself and partying while we were all searching the entire freaking globe for her. What a stupid bitch."

Richard winced about the manner his wife spoke about Celeste. Especially in front of her impressionable son. "I met her outside just before, and I have to tell you, I'm sure that she was in more danger than she was willing to admit."

Now Lois turned around to look into his eyes. "What in the world are you talking about? If you count running out of champagne as a _real_ threat for life, then maybe."

"Lois. She is keeping something big from us. I'm positive about that," Richard insisted.

"Why are you so certain?" Lois asked her husband.

"She told me that the ship's name was the _Gertrude_!"

Now Lois' mouth dropped wide open. Turning back to face Superman, she covered her mouth with her hand. "Oh my gosh. Lex Luthor was the cause of this all?"

* * *

When Celeste and Mathieu came back to her room, the doctor was already waiting for her. "Miss McPherson, it is strict hospital policy that you stay in your room until you are cleared to go for a walk," he said sternly, glaring at her over his clipboard.

The young woman just shrugged and sat down on her bed. "Am I cleared?" she asked curtly.

The doctor rolled his eyes and handed her over a piece of paper. "Yes, you are. You are even cleared to leave the hospital. I understand you are a professional ballet dancer?" Celeste nodded. "I would suggest you to take it easy for the next couple of days and then you can go back to work. Here is the certification for your employer. Have a nice day."

After the man had left the room, Celeste walked into the bathroom and changed into her clothes, which were still a bit damp from her journey into the ocean.

"Can you please take me back to my hotel room?" she asked Mathieu once she was finished.

He nodded, picked up the waterproof backpack, and gave it to Celeste. Then they both left the hospital, a very difficult task as thousands of people were waiting in front of the building in order to find out what was happening to Superman. Both, Mathieu and Celeste were escorted by two policemen. On their way to the cab they unwittingly passed Martha and Jonathan Kent, both looking concernedly in the direction of the hospital.

Before Celeste jumped into the cab, she turned around and looked back one more time. A tear ran down her cheek. She really didn't know how to cope with leaving the man she loved behind. Unfortunately, she was well aware that there was no way for her to stand by him without blowing his cover.

Resigned, she joined Mathieu at the back of the cab just in time to hear him give the driver directions for her hotel.


	20. Chapter 18

**Disclaimer:**** So You Think You Can Dance is property of Simon Fuller and Nigel Lythgoe and is produced by Entertainment and Dick Clark Productions.**

**Busard, thank you very much for reviewing. Yes, Lois is very bitchy, but she has a reason for this behavior. All will be explained in the following chapters. Stay tuned ;)**

**My dear readers, this is my longest chapter so far...**

**In all the previous chapters the dancing action was all my own work. In this chapter, however, I have used two of the dances the top four 2010 finalists of the Australian version of "So You Think You Can Dance" have danced. I think they did an **_**amazing**_** job. It's all their work and I only borrow it for this chapter. If you are curious, you can watch them on Youtube, this is how I found them :)**

**The two songs used are "3 Words" from Cheryl Cole feat. william, and "Sweet Disposition" from The Tamper Trap.**

**As usual, a huge thanks to my amazing betas Dragon166, 00Verisimilitude00, and Astha22! This story wouldn't be what it is without you!**

**18.**

Celeste looked wistfully out of the window over the ocean of her apartment in downtown Sydney. As of today it had been three months ago that Lex Luthor had kidnapped her.

She looked up into the stars and a single tear rolled down her cheek. Since that day she hadn't heard anything about the whereabouts of Superman or his alter ego Clark Kent.

Sighing, she turned away from the window and sat down on her kitchen chair at the counter. The cup of tea she had poured for herself nearly a quarter of an hour ago was only lukewarm at best.

Every morning when she woke up and every evening before she went to bed, Celeste found herself staring out of the window for a sign of him. Although she knew this would not bring him back, she needed this little ritual to be able to process the fear and sense of loss that had seeped into her very being.

While she was sipping on her black tea, she thought about the past view month.

She had continued to dance in the _Romeo and_ _Juliet_ production for the remaining two weeks of the show in Metropolis. It had been the hardest thing in the world for her to do, but there had been no way for her to back off from this responsibility.

The week her team had come back to Australia, the most incredible thing had happened. Celeste had only heard about it after she had been back in Sydney, but the newspapers had been abuzz with the news days before Celeste was up to speed. All the media coverage around the world had reported that Superman had vanished from the hospital after recovering surprisingly quickly.

After Celeste was finished with her tea, she went into her bedroom and lay down in her bed.

It was already one in the morning, and Celeste rolled over in her bed to stare at her alarm clock as she realized that sleep was still elusive as ever, just like it had been these past three very long months.

All her thoughts circled around the man she loved, making it impossible for her mind to settle down enough for sleep. Every day that he wasn't with her, she became more and more crazy and frustrated. It was unbearable, the feeling of not knowing how he was, and the combination of sleep deprivation and long grueling rehearsals for their next big performance back in Metropolis left her exhausted each day.

Celeste and Alexander had been hired on the spot after the premier of the _Romeo and Juliet_ production as leads for the remake of _Fame_. It made her hands shake with nerves every time she realized their performance was less than a month away.

As she turned on her side to block the glowing red numbers from view, her thoughts turned to Mathieu. Oddly enough, _he_ had been a real reliable companion in her times of distress. She had never thought that their relationship would go in this direction, but since they had been back in Australia he had always been there for her when she needed him, and this had certainly been _a lot_ of times where she had simply felt she was falling apart and he had helped her patch herself up again and again.

Alexander had been a huge friend too. Celeste smiled at the thought. Although he had taken a week off to marry his girlfriend last week back in Sweden, he was back now and able to look after her as well.

Even Thomas, who had recovered pretty well after his accident five month ago, had always there for her when she needed him.

Restlessly Celeste rolled over again. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw_ him_, lying there in the hospital bed, the defibrillator exploding on his chest, the darkness surrounding them afterwards. These pictures were just in her head as if somebody had engraved them on the insides of her eyelids.

Absolutely fed up with her lack of sleep, she leaned over and jerked open the drawer of her nightstand to pull out a handful of sleeping pills she had never taken before.

Without even bothering to get some water, she dry-swallowed two of the pills and let herself fall back on the pillow. After a few minutes, the digits of the alarm clock blurred and she didn't even notice when she fell asleep.

* * *

The ringing of her home phone catapulted her out of a dreamless sleep. Sighing, she rolled over on her bed and picked up the phone which was lying next to her. Now facing the window, she raised her hand to shield her eyes from the brightness that was rapidly causing a slight headache in its vibrancy.

"Yeah," she said in a raspy voice.

"Celeste?"

It was her chief choreographer, Jason Green. "Are you okay? It's already 2 PM."

She shot out of bed like an arrow. "What?" she asked, confused. Her hand moved from her forehead to brace herself on her nightstand as she stumbled from a slight head rush as she stood up.

"Yeah, seriously. Check your clock."

Turning around, she glanced at the glowing red numbers and couldn't believe it. It was indeed 2 PM. With a sickening feeling in her stomach, she realized that she had overslept and missed most of the rehearsals for that day. "I am so sorry Jason. I will be there in an hour," she apologized immediately as she made her way to the bathroom.

"No don't be," the voice on the other side of the line reassured her. "You have worked so hard in the last couple of months. Take your time. It's okay if you come a bit later today."

"Are you sure?" Celeste asked tentatively, as she knew that her chief choreographer normally hated for any member of his team to be late.

"Yes, don't worry," he said. "I didn't want to wake you up either, but I have to ask you and Alex for a favor."

Celeste sat down on the toilet seat. "What happened?" she asked curiously.

"I got a call from one of my best friends. I'm sure you've heard about him. Nicolas Light. He has an interesting idea for a new reality show."

"Wow," Celeste replied in a bored voice.

Jason Green noticed the slight sarcasm in her voice, "Hear me out first please. He wants you and Alex for the premiere of this show."

Celeste changed the phone to her other ear. "What's the premise?" she asked.

"Nicolas and three other former dancers want to find the twenty best dancers of Australia. In the show they dance in different styles and two get eliminated every week. The prize is $200,000 and a job at one of Australia's best dancing companies. At the end the winning pair gets it all. But this is only the short version what this show is all about. Listen. Just think about it. I have already spoken to Alex and he is okay with it."

The young ballet dancer evaluated the proposition for a minute. Should she do her boss the favor to dance in this show?

"When is the premiere?" she asked, wondering if she could leave her options open.

"In two weeks."

Celeste evaluated for a view minutes. Participating in this show _and_ the rehearsals for the _Fame _production would at least keep her occupied enough to not think about Clark all day long. It'd be a nice change of pace, she decided. "Well, I think I'll better get into my rehearsal clothes and show up at the Dancing Theatre as soon as possible," she declared.

"That's my girl. Nicolas will be there at six to show you the two pieces he has chosen for you to dance."

After Jason had hung up his phone, Celeste took off her clothes and jumped into the shower. This Nicolas-guy was a genius. She liked the idea of finding skilled dancers through such a show, and for the first time in the last three months a smile appeared on the young woman's face.

* * *

Two weeks later was the premiere of the new show called, "So You _Really and Truly_ Think You Can Dance?" in the Sydney Opera House. It was sold out.

As the makeup artist applied Celeste's stage makeup, the professional ballet dancer looked around.

The ten chosen amateur female dancers for the show shared the changing room with her. In the last couple of weeks she got to know them all very well and she especially liked Ebony, the most beautiful woman Celeste had ever seen. The black haired exotic beauty from Brisbane had an incredible talent for dance, and this was surely just the beginning of her career, which would certainly and without a doubt go much further with her skills.

When the makeup was finished, Celeste stepped out of the dressing room and bumped into Alexander. They both smiled.

Alexander lifted his hand and put it on her right cheek. "Are you ready?" he asked concernedly.

"As ready I can be with a jazz-dance routine. Can you imagine? Us. Together. Doing a jazz-dance routine. I just hope we can sell it to the audience," Celeste laughed nervously.

Alexander hugged her as they made their way to the stage where the show was already in full swing. "Well, I think it's a good thing to experience what these dancers will go through in the next ten weeks," he declared.

When they both were in their positions behind the stage, the director of the show walked to them. "Okay, you have another five minutes till your performance. I will give you a sign when you are on."

Both dancers just nodded. When the director vanished behind the huge stage, Celeste grabbed Alexander's hand. "Please tell me that we won't act like clowns in front of all these people out there."

Alexander just frowned. "You forgot the million of viewers on the television."

This was all too much for the young ballet dancer. Terrified, she ran in the direction of the restrooms where she just managed to throw up in a toilet.

* * *

Mathieu was watching the show up in the gallery from a very exclusive spot where he was alone and covered in darkness.

Celeste had given him a backstage pass so he could indulge in a very exclusive view of the stage. He had to admit that he hadn't liked the concept of such a reality show. Celeste however, had convinced him that this was a great idea.

Sighing, he looked around. _At least she seems to be much happier again since she started to participate in this project_, he thought.

The past three months had been a real trial for him. Not only because of Celeste mourning over the loss of the love of her life, but he had also lost his job due to the downturn of the economy. He had even had to resort to work as a surf trainer. Mathieu shook his head. Even though he loved good surf, he knew that he needed to try to get back into his job as an airline pilot as soon as possible.

Just as the Brisbane Ballet Company performers entered the stage, Mathieu felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned around and his jaw dropped to the floor.

In front of him stood no other than the Man of Steel himself.

"Hi, Mathieu. It's nice to see you again," he greeted with a smile.

Mathieu tilted his head to the left side, speechless. After all, he had never expected the hero to mix with other people wearing something as casual as a white shirt-sleeved shirt and black ripped jeans with his raven hair brushed back out of his face. He stared for a moment, dually fascinated and excited. "How come you can walk around like that and nobody recognizes you?" he finally managed to ask.

"I can't do this in Metropolis or the USA. But here it's very safe."

"Because people don't see you much often down here and would certainly not expect you to live among us. Much like Clark Kent in the United States," Mathieu finished.

The man in front of him nodded and smiled. It was okay with him if Mathieu knew his secret. "No they wouldn't," he agreed.

"Very clever," the other man admitted.

Clark turned his head and looked at Mathieu. "Even though we didn't have a good start, I want to thank you for saving my life, as well as Celeste's," he said sincerely.

At Clark's words, Mathieu felt his face heating up in embarrassment. "Yeah, about that, I'm really sorry how I reacted. In Celeste's hotel room I mean, but also when we waited in front of her dressing room."

Clarks' mouth curled into a smile. "That's okay. I assume you were able to sort things out with Celeste then. About the DVD I mean."

Mathieu blushed. "It's bad enough you got to see that thing too. But yes, Celeste and I are good now."

Clark felt happily reassured that even though he had been away for such a long time, he knew that there had been somebody she could count on. "Just out of curiosity, could you find out who had sent the DVD?" he asked, as a cheeky smile appeared on his face.

Mathieu sighed. "Yes it was Tania. She did it because she wanted Celeste out of my life, and apparently she succeeded. Well I mean at least regarding my sex-life. Go figure!"

Clark shook his head. "I don't get human men. I mean you often seem to think with only a tiny portion of your brain, and I don't mean the one allocated between your ears." he explained with a grin while Mathieu winced. "On my home planet, the society was extremely advanced. I mean really advanced, as in light years ahead of Earth. The Kryptonian race was that advanced that they didn't even conceive children the natural way anymore."

Now Mathieu was surprised. "Do you mean that they never had sex anymore?" he asked curiously.

"No, no sex," Clark confirmed. "This was something they thought would distract them from the real important things in their life."

"I can't even imagine living without sex. I mean your people must have been at least capable of doing it. I caught you with Celeste after you were together." Mathieu rumbled. "Eh... I mean you can be together with a woman. Can't you?"

Clark blushed. "Yes I can. And I enjoy it," he admitted.

Now Mathieu was relieved. "Man you got me for a second. What a god awful life would that be." He shuddered.

"A very boring life indeed." Clark agreed. "I think they're on," he said suddenly, indicating the stage in front of them and watching as the announcer strode confidently to the center of the dance floor.

"This is one sexy romance!" Norelle Baker gushed to the camera, "Give it up for Celeste McPherson and Alexander Nilson two of the best ballet dancers in the world who will show us with the next two dances what will be expected from the dancers competing in the show."

Clark's heart skipped a beat as he first noticed Celeste on the stage.

She was dressed in a white midriff blaring shirt and light blue jean shorts, showing just a hint of her black lace lingerie above the waistband of her low jeans and through the sheer white top. Alexander was next to her wearing a white singlet and jeans of a similar color. The music started and the crowd cheered as the dancers started to move to the beat.

Alexander approached Celeste until he was nearly a foot away and then backed slowly away, the whole while maintaining intense eye-contact. Still apart, they preformed jerky movements perfectly in synch with each other. Then Celeste moved towards Alexander and embraced him, wrapping her left leg around his waist. The male ballet dancer bent in such a way as to let her sit on his right leg and held her firmly as she pulled back, dipping her head so that her hair almost touched the floor. After waiting for a split second, Alexander he picked her up and she bent gracefully back with her arms and legs, so that her body curved beautifully away from him. The crowd applauded and watched, as he picked her up again only to hold her over his head. As she fell, they both twisted down to the floor and Alexander pulled her close to him. Celeste relaxed her head on his shoulder and rolled onto the floor from her sitting position, and Alexander quickly followed to slowly descend on top of her. Celeste arched her torso as he moved so that her abdomen connected with his, and they continued to tumble sensuously on the floor, faster than before. Once Celeste was on top of him, they paused, and he lifted her up by straightening his arms. She leapt lightly away from his grasp and stepped over him. After she had moved away, Alexander got up. They danced in synch for the next few beats, until Alexander moved toward Celeste and picked her up for the second time, raising her up and lowering her onto her left leg as she spread her legs wide in split. A moment later he dipped her down again, and released her. After a couple more pirouettes, they both ended up in a kneeling position on the floor, rapidly touching their hands together and pulling their heads back in unison. While Alexander was still on the floor kneeling in front of her and grasping leg, begging her to stay with him, Celeste got up. He then leapt up again a moment later, pulling her into his arms. She jumped onto his lap where she again pulled her head back almost until her hair touched the floor. At this, the crowd went wild. They spun around the dance floor as he held her in dizzying circles as Celeste's legs slipped and dipped to wrap around Alexander's strong torso. A moment later she escaped his grip and ran away to the edge of the stage. He followed her, pulling her into his arms while she started to cry. In this position they both stayed frozen until the music lapsed into silence.

The only feeling Clark had was numbness. His throat was dry and his eyes remained glued on both dancers who were now standing on the stage bowing in gratitude to the crowd.

When Mathieu turned around to tell Clark, that this was one of the best performances he had ever seen form Celeste and Alexander, he was surprised to see the hero everybody knew so devastated.

"We thought that something really bad happened to you after you vanished from the hospital," Mathieu said to break the silence between them.

Clark turned around to face Mathieu. "I had to go to a special place to fully recover from my injuries, but it took me much longer as something really important I needed to recover, had gone missing," he explained quietly.

"Celeste almost drove nuts out of worry about you."

At his words, Clark's gazed moved so that he was now looking into Mathieu's eyes. His expression was a mixture of fright and concern.

"She even watched how the doctors tried to bring you back to life," Mathieu continued.

"What?"

Mathieu nodded. "She almost died with you that day."

The news hit Clark like a truck. He hadn't known anything of the sort. Shaking his head in shock, he didn't even notice the single tear running down his cheek. "I am so sorry," was all he could manage to say.

He almost couldn't bear the thought about what she had gone through in worry. Struggling to process what Mathieu had just said, he clutched at the rail in front of him. Eyes closed. He opened them again a few moments later, just in time to see Noelle Baker stride onto the stage and announce loudly to the camera, "Has this matador met his match? Give it up for one more time for Celeste McPherson and Alexander Nilson."

The crowd applauded and the spotlight focused on Celeste and Alexander both standing on the upper part of the stage. Clark gasped at the sight of her, the most beautiful women he had ever met.

Celeste was now dressed in a crimson bolero top and Spanish skirt, shorter in the front and longer in the back. Her hair was pulled back into a knot on the back on her head and only one lock was pulled over her ear on the left side. On the opposite side of her face, a red flower was placed in her hair. Alexander was standing in front of a mirror staring at himself, only dressed in black matador sleeks and high heel bolero shoes, the same shoes Celeste was wearing.

The beat started and Alexander started to dance the flamenco in front of the mirror as Celeste watched him from where she sat on a chair a few feet away. She lifted her right leg high in the air before gracefully placing it back on the floor and slowly walked in his direction while he was still dancing. They circled each other once, hands twisting and turning in the air, until Celeste moved to stand behind Alexander. He pulled his head back so that it rested on her shoulder for the briefest of moments before taking her hand and whirling her in circles, her long skirt flaring out beautifully beneath her. She slowed, Alexander making the final turn with her, and as they both escaped the turn, they lifted their left legs in unison into the air. Celeste smoothly raised one of her legs, wrapping it securely around Alexander's, and he used that as a pivot to twirl her around him in the air in the direction of the chair she had vacated minutes ago. When he put her down she leapt to the chair and picked up his bolero jacket, helping him to put it on. He started to walk back to the mirror, stomping his feed on the floor to the beat of the music, as Celeste picked up the front of her skirt and followed him, her feet moving to match his rhythm. He turned around and leapt into the air, landing in a kneeling position on the floor. Celeste continued to dance out the beat, but as she approached him she raised her right foot to his chest, stopping him from getting up again. He pushed her foot away and went back to the chair to pick up his cape that had been lying across it. Alexander whipped the cape around him, snapping it this way and that, as Celeste circled slowly around him in semicircles. Eventually she lunged, and Alexander spun his cape out of the way just in time. She ran up to him and raised both hands to his face, but he pushed her away and jumped down to be on the main stage. Celeste leapt at him, landing on his back with one leg wrapped around his waist and the other still on the floor trying to hold him back. He carried her in this position to the center stage, releasing her before once again starting to fight with her like she was the bull. They made small circles around each other, until Celeste got tired of their little game and stopped running for his cape. Instead she ran up to him and briefly held his face with her hands one more time, but he impatiently flung her hands out of the way and raised his leg. In response Celeste pulled back with her whole body as his leg passed over her, her back arching gracefully almost to the floor. He pulled her away and she held his hands, both dancing the pasodoble steps with the cape as a barrier between them. She released his hands, and he caught her with his cape, holding her in place as she spun around him. After a few revolutions she ducked out of the cape, twirling away from him. When they both met again she beat on his chest in anger and frustration, but when the music stopped, they both pulled each other into an embrace while kneeling on the floor.

The crowd was speechless.

Jason Green had created a masterpiece with two of the best dancers in the world.

Up in the gallery the two men who had watched the performances from high above, were just as stunned as the multitude of people below.

As the two dancers were exiting the stage, Clark turned to face Mathieu. "May I ask you for a favor?" he asked quietly.

The man from Australia nodded. "Your wish is my command," he answered, as his mouth curled into a wide grin.


	21. Chapter 19

**A/N: My dear readers a new chapter for you…**

**Dragon 166, Astha22, and busard all I can say to this chapter is, **_**your wish is my command**_** ;)**

**A huge thanks to my betas Dragon166, 00Verisimilitude00, and Astha22!**

**19.**

When Celeste finally managed to escape to the changing room, Mathieu was already waiting for her in front of the door.

"Wow, wow, wow," he said in awe, "That is what I'm talking about. That was really hot, sweetheart," he said excited and hugged her firmly.

"Thanks Mathieu. I hope you had a good view from where I snuck you in," Celeste said, smiling.

A wide grin appeared on Mathieu's face. "It was actually very interesting up there."

"Hey, how about I change into normal clothes and we go and have a drink, celebrating my first performance on television?"

She turned around to enter the changing room.

Mathieu grabbed her arm and twisted her around to face him. "How about you come with me? I have a surprise for you."

Her smile widened in pleasure. "What surprise?"

"Now Celeste, would it be a surprise if I told you?"

"No, of course not, but a girl's got to try," she teased. "Give me ten minutes and I'll be ready."

"Actually, I want you to come right now," Mathieu said quickly.

Celeste's eyes narrowed in puzzlement. "We are not allowed to leave the building in costume," she explained.

Mathieu leaned down and whispered into her ear, "They don't need to know. The show is still on at least for another two hours or so. We'll be back before then."

* * *

They both slipped out of the Opera House a couple of minutes later. Mathieu ushered Celeste into his car and after drove for ten minutes, finally stopping in front of the Chifley Tower, the highest skyscraper in Sydney.

The ballet dancer got out of the car, and Mathieu pulled a blindfold out of his jacket.

Now Celeste's curiosity was piqued. "What's this all about?" she asked, wondering what Mathieu was trying to do.

"Don't worry. I just want to make the surprise a bit more of a ... surprise," he said, amused at her reaction. He tied the blindfold around her eyes.

Celeste had no choice but to follow her friend and trust him, even though she really hadn't had the slightest idea what the surprise would be in the middle of downtown Sydney. All she could feel were his strong hands guiding her up some stairs and into a building. Soon she recognized the beeping of an elevator, and Mathieu guided her in. The next she felt was the carriage ascending. After a few minutes they stopped and stepped out of the elevator. When she felt a light breeze in her hair, Celeste realized that they were outside again.

Mathieu stopped and undid the blindfold while facing her. He smiled and his dark brown eyes looked cheekily at her.

"What?" Celeste was about to ask, but Mathieu only put his index finger on her lips to silence her.

"Celeste you are a very fascinating woman. I really admire you. You are an amazing friend, lover, and partner. You really deserve to be happy in your life."

Mathieu's speech sent shivers down Celeste's spine. What was this all about?

"Could you please close your eyes once more?" he continued.

Celeste nodded and did what he had asked for. Then she felt a soft kiss on her brow. "You are now allowed to open them again." Mathieu said and she heard him walking away.

Very slowly Celeste opened her eyes.

The first thing she realized was a very familiar shade of red and blue. When her eyes had finally adjusted to the night, she saw _him_ only a couple of meters away in front of her.

"You're back!" she shouted.

Without any hesitation, she jumped into his arms and pulled him as close as she could. Superman closed his eyes and inhaled her beautiful scent, which he loved so much as Celeste looked up at him.

"I love you!" She said the words she had wanted to say since they had been in Richard's plane.

The kiss they shared spoke of passion, love and a binding of souls meant for each other.

Mathieu watched the reunion with a big grin on his face, slipping away to give the couple some private time.

When they broke apart, Superman looked into Celeste's eyes. "I am sorry Celeste… For everything."

The young woman brushed her hand over his cheek. "Don't be. Nothing that happened was your fault," she stated determinedly. "You did all you could and you even risked your life to save us all. There is nothing you should be ashamed of."

Superman lowered his head. "But I had to leave you for more than three months."

"You are back now," she reassured him and kissed him once more.

He nodded and smiled. Celeste placed her head on his chest. This was the place where she wanted to be for the rest of her life. She closed her eyes and listened to his unique heartbeat for what seemed like forever. When she opened her eyes again, her heart stopped for a moment, and she forgot to breathe. Until this moment, she hadn't realized that they were floating high above Sydney!

"Wow," she said, holding on to Superman even tighter than before.

He smiled as the million lights underneath them twinkled. A moment later when he felt her shivering in his arms, he grabbed his cape and wrapped it tightly around her.

Celeste looked into his cerulean eyes.

"It's beautiful," she said, marveling at their distance up in the sky.

"I wanted to talk to you in private and realized that there was no better place to be alone with you than this," he explained to her.

She just smiled in response.

With a long sigh he started to talk. "Celeste, there is something I've wanted to tell you since the magic night we spent together."

The young woman in his arms nodded as she continued to stare deeply into his eyes.

"I've never met a woman like you before," he admitted, "and you know how strange my life is. Many people don't even think that I have feelings too. You were the first ever to ask me what my wishes and dreams are." He couldn't help quell his urge to kiss her between this words. "I've also never met somebody I could be absolutely honest to, except my parents, but there were still some things I couldn't tell them." He smirked.

Celeste smiled, as she exactly knew what he meant.

"My world broke down when Lois married Richard. Celeste, I really loved her. But then you came into my live with this flowery summer dress in the middle of the winter and you swept me off my feet faster than a speeding bullet. After we had been together, I realized that I haven't really known love before. Yes, I was in love with Lois, but the way I feel for you is beyond anything I've ever felt before," he paused, wondering how to phrase his next thought. "Even though I can lift whole islands, I feel much stronger when you are around me."

Celeste's eyes were filled with tears, as she felt exactly the same for him.

"Celeste… the last three months were almost unbearable for me. I can't and don't want to be without you for a single day anymore. You are the one. You always will be," he whispered into her ear.

Superman swallowed nervously, betraying his apprehension over his next few words. "Celeste McPherson," he said slowly. "Would you give me the honor to be my wife?"

Celeste's eyes widened in astonishment. With orbs as big as apples, she looked into his cerulean eyes. She wanted to answer him as she already knew her answer, but he put an index finger to her lips.

"Before you answer my question I want to let you know that I am well aware of what I'm asking you for. Honestly, it's not easy to share the person you love with the six billion other people on this planet. There will be times when I can't be around even if you need me. Even though I swear I will move heaven and earth to make sure to be there for you when you need me, but I can't promise it."

Celeste put her hand on his cheek. "Clark," she said softly. "My dad is a pediatric surgeon. Do you have any idea how often my mother and my brothers were alone even during very important events in our lives? And my dad isn't even a superhero." He smiled at her words, and Celeste continued. "I want to be your wife and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I feel the same way for you and there is nobody in this world I will ever love more than you."

"But you have to understand that my life is very dangerous and so are the lives of the people I love. What if Lex Luthor comes back and tries to kill me again?"

Celeste caught his face and glanced deep into his eyes. "We just have to trust that we will always be there for each other when times get tough. And if Lex Luthor tries to kill you once more, I swear, I will kick his ass!"

* * *

They almost didn't make it to Celeste's apartment without falling over each other.

There, Celeste closed the door and looked deep into the eyes of the man she adored. He lowered his head and started to kiss her passionately. Celeste giggled into Clark's mouth with the sheer joy of their reunion. To finally be with him again caused her heart to beat faster and faster. Clark stopped for a second and pushed her against the door, his eyes blazing with pure passion. As he deepened his kiss, he delighted in exploring her beautiful crimson lips and lifted his right leg to let her sit on it. She rocked up and down on it and he could feel her getting more and more aroused. He stopped and looked at her with a cheeky smile, while he removed her hairclip. Celeste's beautiful curls floated over her shoulders.

The next second, Clark picked her up and carried her to the bedroom where he gently put her down on the canopy bed. Celeste undressed herself as fast as she could until she was sitting only in her skirt and lingerie.

He put his hand on her cheek and continued to kiss her while his other hand moved to the zipper of her skirt. When he had finally helped her out of her remaining clothes, he undressed himself and kneeled in front of her on the bed.

For more than five minutes they only looked into each other's eyes.

Celeste was the one who made the first move, crawling into his lap and renewing their heated kisses. She wanted to feel him, to be close to him and most of all, to never let him go again.

Smiling against his mouth, Celeste continued to explore the recesses of his mouth with her tongue while he embraced her with his arms. As they both resurfaced, gasping for air, Clark looked deeply into Celeste's eyes and in one swift move placed her on her back with a smile of pure joy on his face. Her soft skin felt like smooth silk under his caressing fingers. For a split second he stopped and looked at her, the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Goosebumps started to appear under his gaze, and Celeste was fairly shivering under his touch. He moistened his lips and lowered his head slowly to kiss her neck. Celeste tilted her head back to give him better access as Clark trailed a path of feather light kisses down her collar bone down to the tender spot between her breasts. A soft moan escaped her lips as he began to suck her nipples. She savored every single touch of him. It all was just so indescribably amazing, his naked skin on hers and his hot kisses on her lips and all over her body. Her passion was skyrocketing into the stratosphere. She opened her eyes and turned with him so she was sitting on top of him. He brushed her corkscrew curls behind her ears so he could see her face. She bit her lover's lip playfully, and continued to kiss him.

When they finally started to make love, Celeste felt like she was flying high above in the sky. After a view minutes, she opened her eyes and let out a scream when she realized that they were indeed hovering in the middle of the air. Both of them felt back into the bed and stated to laugh hysterically.

"I'm sorry," Clark apologized when he was able to speak again.

"What just happened?" Celeste asked, still trying to catch her breath from laughing.

The man in her arms blushed crimson. "The last time something like that happened to me was when I was about 14 years old," he admitted.

Celeste sat up, eyes alight with curiosity. "Tell me please, please, please," she begged.

He raised himself up on his elbows and reached one hand to play with one of her blonde curls. "The first time that happened I had a dream about my high school crush at that time."

Celeste was surprised. "Did you love her?"

He nodded. "I had been in love with her since kindergarten. Her parents were our neighbors. Anyway, I had a really, um, interesting dream about her and me doing certain things, and when I woke up I realized that I was hovering about four feet above my bed. After a moment I fell back to the mattress, destroying my bed in the process."

Celeste let out a loud shout of laughter. "And you want to tell me now that I catapulted you back into your first teenage-boy dream?" She continued to smile, barely containing herself.

"Yeah Celeste, it's really funny," he said in response to her giggles and rolled his eyes. He pulled her closer to drown her laughter with a deep passionate kiss. She felt his hot skin on hers and stopped laughing as a wave of passion overwhelmed her. When she finally had completely shut up, he looked into her eyes. "When I'm with you nothing else matters to me anymore. I literally feel like flying and you just witnessed it."

Celeste gaped at him speechlessly.

She caught his chin and kissed him again. "Then why did you stop doing it?" she asked, wrapping her legs firmly around him.

* * *

The next morning Celeste woke up with the first rays of the sun. She turned her head and realized that she was somehow tangled with Clark's limbs. He turned his head and kissed her on the brow.

"Finally awake sleepyhead?" he teased her.

"What time is it?" she asked.

"It's just after five."

Celeste sat up and looked puzzled at him. "And you are already wide awake?"

He smiled. "I'm like a vampire, just the other way around. As soon as the sun is up I can't sleep anymore."

"But you only had a couple of hours sleep."

He raised himself from the bed and kissed her on the lips. "That's okay. I don't need that much sleep," he explained.

"Of course," Celeste realized, slapping herself on her forehead.

In a split second Clark changed into his Superman outfit and kissed her once more.

"I have to go. Lois and Jason," he explained.

Celeste nodded. She hadn't known that he had come to her first, but she knew now that he needed to go to his son to tell him he was all right.

"I love you," she said, smiling.

"I love you, too," he responded and vanished within a blink of an eye.

* * *

Lois Lane White was sitting on the porch in the dark, wrapped in a quilt, and playing with her cigarette lighter, deep in thought. Her mind swirled in an endless circle, trying to fathom where Superman might have gotten to or how he might be.

Sighing she burrowed even further into the quilt and looked absently up at the starlit sky.

Richard was standing at the door and watched his wife. Lois hadn't been herself ever since Superman had been vanished from the hospital, and Richard was concerned. She had been sitting on that same porch every night for more than three months, waiting for any sign of life from the hero. Richard frowned as he remembered the many times he had to carry her inside to bed, since she was too exhausted to move herself. He understood that she needed Superman's help to raise their son, but this was something more. Sighing, he turned around to prepare a cup of tea for his six months pregnant wife.

With her nerves stretched to breaking, Lois opened the package of cigarettes she still had left from the time Superman had come back from his search for the remains of Krypton.

She rolled one of the cigarettes between her thumb and index finger and played with the lighter. When she brought it up to her mouth to light it, a deep voice spoke to her.

"You shouldn't smoke. Especially not in the circumstances you are in at the moment Mrs. White," Superman said.

Lois jumped out of her chair, dropped the quilt, and hugged the man from Krypton very tightly, tears were rolling down her cheeks.

"You're back!" she said, looking into his eyes. "What happened on that island?" she asked, getting straight to the point.

He brushed one of her brown locks out of her face and turned around to face the docked seaplane. "It was Lex Luthor," he explained, still not looking at her. "He stole one of my memory crystals and a hunk of kryptonite from the Metropolis museum and created a new island with them. I had to get rid of it, but I was badly hurt."

Lois finally understood what had happened to him. She walked up to Superman and put her hand on his shoulder. "May I ask you a question?" she asked tentatively.

He turned around to face her and nodded.

"What happened with that bitchy ballet dancer on that island and the _Gertrude_?"

Superman's eyes widened. "What do you mean?" he asked slowly, trying to gauge exactly how much Lois knew.

At his question, Lois's eyes narrowed in anger, and started to shake her head at him. "I saw her. She came to you when you were hurt in the hospital. She lied to me. She was definitively on the _Gertrude and with Lex Luthor_. I still don't know why she didn't tell me the truth. Believe me, I will find out what she's hiding from us."

"Lois," Superman answered and Lois didn't miss his aggravation over what she had just said. "Did it occur to you that some things are none of your business?" he asked angrily, waiting only a second before flying off.

Lois' jaw dropped on the floor at his words. She had never seen him that defensive. Deep in thought, she chewed on her thumbnail for a moment as she thought of what he had just said. Something was off about that dreadful ship and island, and she was determined to find out whatever it was he was concealing.

* * *

When Clark finally arrived back in his apartment, he immediately took a shower and changed into pajama pants and a t-shirt. While toweling his hair dry with one hand, he grabbed his cell phone with the other and dialed Celeste's number. As soon as he heard her voice on the other end of the line, he smiled.

"I miss you," he said simply.

On the other end of the line the ballet dancer's heartbeat increased dangerously. "I miss you too," she replied. "How was your meeting with Lois and Jason?"

Clark sighed and rubbed his eyes. "It was very ... awkward," he admitted.

"Why? What happened?" the woman on the other side of the line asked.

"She got very suspicious about what happened to us at sea," he explained.

Celeste understood. "Well she is one of the best investigative reporters in this world. What did you expect?"

"I know," he agreed. "But I just don't want her to interfere in our private lives in any way."

Celeste nodded. "She won't stop until we will tell her the truth," she realized.

Clark heaved a long sigh.

"How did Jason react that you are back?" Celeste asked, trying to deviate from the Lois problem.

"When I was finally able to see him, he was very happy that I'm okay. Richard too. I think Lois gave him a pretty hard time in the last three months."

"I don't blame her," Celeste stated. "I know how I felt, and I can't imagine Lois fairing any better, especially as the mother of your son."

Clark's heart skipped a beat. "I would love you to be the mother of my child," he admitted very softly.

Celeste's breath stopped for a moment. She absolutely adored this man, and she wanted to be close to him, to feel him, to kiss him till he fainted if this was even possible. All of the sudden, the distance between them felt unbearable, and the 15 hours time difference didn't help at all.

"I am flattered," she replied, "But now go to bed. I have to go too. Jason Green already realized that I am away for far too long," she said with a smirk.

"Yes ma'am," Clark saluted with a wide grin on his face. "I love you!"

Celeste put a kiss on the cell phone so he could hear it. "I love you, too," she replied softly and hung up.

While she was walking back into the rehearsal room, her thoughts circled around the fact, that she would be his wife in less than two months. She knew that it would be hard for the both of them with his double life, but she loved him with every fiber of her body and nothing else mattered to her.


	22. Chapter 20

**A/N: My dear readers, finally a new chapter…**

**Busard, sorry it took me two weeks to post the update :)**

**A huge thanks to my betas Dragon166, 00Verisimilitude00, and Astha22 for their hard beta work even though being busy with other stuff…**

**20.**

When Celeste and her dancing company arrived at the Metropolis International Airport two weeks later for the world premiere of _Fame_, Clark was already waiting at the gate to take her back to his place. They had agreed for her to stay in his apartment for the four weeks of her contract in Metropolis. Although they both detested the hours they spent apart, the next month would be some sort of trial run to find out how they lived together.

The past two weeks Clark had visited Celeste every evening in Sydney when his duties as Superman had given him the chance, and he had always stayed until he only had an hour left before his coworkers expected him at the "Daily Planet". It had been hard for them to only spend short amounts of time together, but considering the distance between their hometowns, it was an indulgence other couples around the globe didn't have.

When Celeste stepped out of the gate, he walked up to her and kissed her, passionately.

All her dancing colleges, including Alexander smirked. "Well Celeste," her dancing partner said slyly. "I think it's really cool to have a lover on every continent of the earth," he teased with his unique Swedish humor.

"Are you jealous?" she countered.

"Well, look at him," he admitted, "Who wouldn't be jealous of one of the world's best journalists?"

All three of them started to laugh, as Clark maneuvered his fiancé to the metro station. "How is Mathieu?" he asked.

The best friend of the ballet dancer really had rough time at the moment.

"Well, he's still trying to find a job, and don't even ask about the women in his life," she said, rolling her eyes.

Clark frowned slightly. "That's a shame," he said honestly.

When the couple finally arrived at Clark's apartment, Celeste was completely exhausted from the long trip. This is why she was absolutely surprised to see his parents waiting for them.

Jonathan and Martha walked up to their soon to-be daughter-in-law and welcomed her warmly.

Delighted, and also exceptionally nervous, the young woman took their hands, but her eyes flickered to her fiancé for a split second before taking in the older couple before her. "It's very nice to meet you. Even though it is a big surprise," she said to them.

Clark chuckled. "I thought it would be the best time to meet my parents, as I've already bought them tickets for the _Fame_ premiere," he explained.

Celeste was just stunned to get to know the most special parents in the _entire_ universe.

Martha hugged the young woman and looked over her shoulder at the two men standing behind her. "Guys, if you want to have dinner tonight, I need you to go and do some shopping. The shopping list is on the dinner table."

Jonathan and his son looked at each other and nodded. Clark grabbed the list and placed a quick kiss on Celeste's lips.

"Don't worry," he said, as he caught sight of her terrified glance. "My mother only eats girlfriends she doesn't like," he teased the two women.

Martha grabbed a tea towel and threw it at him. "Out now," she said sternly and smiled when the two had finally left the apartment.

"Celeste, would you mind helping me prepare the dinner or are you too tired?" the elder women asked.

The younger woman evaluated her options. She was very tired indeed, and considering that she had to go to the rehearsals first thing in the morning, she would had loved just to go to bed and sleep, but unfortunately this wasn't an option right now. "It's okay Martha, I would really love to help," she offered after a moment.

* * *

Clark and Jonathan walked among the shelves in the supermarket down the street.

While Jonathan picked up the items Martha had written on the list, he talked to his son. "Clark, are you sure it's the right decision to marry this woman from Australia?"

He and Martha had been dumbfounded when their son had told them just a few hours ago that they would meet their soon to be daughter in law.

Clark rolled his eyes. He understood the concerns of his parents, he really could. Especially after the disaster with Lois.

"Dad," he started to speak, but a call for help interrupted him.

His father just looked at him and nodded reassuringly when he realized that his son was needed. They could talk later.

Back in the apartment, Martha and Celeste felt a gush of wind and knew instantly what had happened.

Martha sighed and gave Celeste a chopping board, a knife, and a carrot to chop it up. "Miss McPherson, may I be honest with you?" the elder woman asked.

"Yes, but please call me Celeste," the young ballet dancer replied a bit uneasily, as she could feel that Clark's mother wasn't really happy with her son's decision to marry a woman his parents hadn't even met before, and so soon at that.

Martha stopped what she was doing and laid a hand on Celeste's shoulder. "Please don't think I'm rude and that it's really none of my business, I know that, but your both decision to marry in just a couple of months was a bit of a shock for Jonathan and me." She inhaled deeply and continued hesitantly. "Please don't tell me the real reason for this precipitate marriage is you being pregnant!"

Celeste looked at Martha with her eyes wide open. As she blew a lock of hair out of her face, she slipped out of her vest and rolled up the left sleeve of her blouse to show the elderly woman the little scar at her upper arm, where she had implanted a contraceptive device. "In my job it's sometimes better if you not have to worry about certain days of the month during rehearsals and concerts," she explained the reason for having this implant.

Relieved, Martha nodded. "It's just," she tried to explain her concerns, "He is so special and has had so much trouble in his life. We only want the best for him, and to be honest, we think your decision to marry so soon after you've met is a bit... immature."

Celeste put her hand on Martha's. "May I be honest with you?" she asked the elder women in turn.

Again, Martha nodded.

"I can understand that from your point of view it sounds irresponsible and a bit too fast to marry after not even knowing the person that well," Celeste paused, her voice gaining strength as she poured her heart into her words, "But we love each other very much and we figured that we have a whole life together to get to know each other."

Martha looked into the deep green eyes of the young woman standing in front of her. "Yes, I can understand what you are saying, but this isn't an ordinary relationship. What if it does not work out between you two? What if you can't handle his two jobs? What if he is always away and can't be there for you when you need him? What if one of his crazy enemies makes the decision to take you in order to get to him? What then?"

"Martha, don't you think we haven't talked about this all?" Celeste snapped, unable to hold in her anger any longer. "We are young, but we aren't stupid. We know exactly what it means to jump into this relationship, but the least we can do is to try!"

The young woman inhaled deeply and mentally counted to three to calm herself down. Once done, she looked back into Martha's eyes and said softly and sincerely. "I love him from the bottom of my heart, and I promise that I will do everything and anything to make him happy because he deserves to be happy."

If Martha hadn't known that the young ballet dancer was right for her son before, she was now certain. The passion in Celeste's eyes said it all; she really loved Clark and would give up everything to be with him and to support him. The elder women had never thought that such a love would be even possible for her precious son and now she understood. Deeply stirred, she pulled Celeste into her arms. "I believe you," she said. "You are very special Celeste and I can understand now why Clark loves you that much."

Celeste was overwhelmed by this statement. Thick tears rolled down her cheeks as she sobbed in Martha's arms. "Thank you Martha. That meant a lot to me."

Martha pulled out of the hug and looked into Celeste's eyes. The two women didn't need to talk any more, they just understood.

When they heard the door open, Celeste wiped away the tears and smiled. "It's really good we have this out of the way, because I wanted to ask you for a favor," she said, as a watery smile appeared on her face.

During dinner, Clark's parents once more started the discussion about the precipitate marriage and after what Celeste thought had taken hours, she and Clark had convinced Jonathan that their decision hadn't been hurried. At the end, Jonathan surrendered and gave them his blessing. After that, it had been the most amazing evening Celeste had ever had!

* * *

In the middle of the night, after Clarks' parents had been long gone back to their hotel, Celeste opened her eyes. Agitated, she turned form one side of the bed to the other. It was almost impossible for her to sleep. The events from the day kept her wide awake, and the jetlag didn't help either.

Slowly she rose to sit upright.

Clark was lying next to her. His chest rose and fell in a steady rhythm, a sure sign that he was sound asleep.

She placed a quick kiss on his brow and jumped out of the bed to walk into the kitchen to get some water. As she slowly sipped from her glass, she turned around and was stunned.

The apartment in the old villa was very beautiful, but the view by night was breath taking. She opened the door to the roof-top garden, as she grabbed one of Clark's jackets from the back of one of the dining table chairs.

Outside, the air was very fresh, and a light breeze was brushing through her hair. Celeste started to shiver and wrapped herself a bit more into the jacket.

On the roof-top garden there was some very old and tasteful outdoor furniture mixed with the most gorgeous plants Celeste had ever seen.

She walked to the wall and looked at the million of lights from the skyscrapers not too far away. Yawning she sat on one of the chairs and looked up. The starlit sky was hanging like a blanket above her.

The subdued sounds of cars soughed into her ears and she closed her eyes. To be at this place with the man she loved more than anything else in this world was just astonishing. Spontaneous butterflies started to flutter in her stomach as a smile appeared on her face. She would be his wife in less than two months.

Sighing, she stood up to go back into the apartment. They hadn't told her parents about the exciting news and Celeste was seriously concerned about the reaction of her family to the very extraordinary news. Besides the fact _who_ she would marry.

Back in the apartment, she slipped out of the jacket and walked up to the bed.

When she wanted to slip under the covers again, she saw an astronomical telescope on the other side of the room in front of the windows.

Curious, she walked to the telescope and looked through it. It was adjusted to a black spot in between two stars.

When she looked up again, she realized that Clark was standing next to her, also looking at the stars. Wincing, she jumped a bit. She hadn't expected him to be awake.

"Sorry. I didn't want to scare you," he said, placing a gentle kiss on her lips. "Can't you sleep?"

Celeste shook her head and cuddled into his arms. "I tried, but everything is so exciting," she explained, as she glanced up into his eyes.

A soft smile appeared on his face. "I know… I feel the same, Celeste," he confessed in a husky voice and and this time he kissed her more passionately.

When they separated again, Celeste nodded into direction of the telescope. "Why did you adjust it to the black spot in between two stars?" she asked.

Clark walked up to the telescope and looked through it. "This is where Krypton was," he explained.

Celeste put her hand on his cheek.

He leaned into her palm.

"I'm sorry," she said sincerely. "Do you even know what Krypton looked like?"

Clark nodded and walked to the bookshelf. There, he grabbed a baseball sized globe and gave it to his fiancé. Interested, she looked at the globe. Clark touched it again and they both watched it starting to glow and changing its surface into a completely different picture.

"Krypton was mainly made of ice and life was only possible on these parts of the planet," he explained, pointing to various spots on the globe.

With eyes wide, she looked at the ball in her hands. Life on another Planet? Even though she knew that Clark was from a solar system far, far away, the globe in her hands was a much more tangible evidence that he was really from another world, which interestingly enough had a land mass and oceans just like the Earth.

"Did all the people on Krypton have your abilities?" she asked.

"No, they were just like humans on earth. The planet's sun, called RAO, was a red mass of gas. Only the yellow sun from this solar system brings out these abilities," he explained to her, letting go of the globe and watching the surface change back into Earth again.

Celeste glanced up directly into his eyes. She could see how much it hurt him to talk about his eradicated home planet. "What happened to Krypton?" she asked with a shaky voice.

Clark turned around and looked out of the window. "Zod happened," he said quietly, turning back facing her again. "He destroyed the planet and all life on it... Except me." As he spoke, he put the globe back to its spot in the bookshelf and gave Celeste an octagonal disc. "My birth parents sent me to Earth the moment the planet exploded. You could say their timing was just perfect. They enclosed these two artifacts with the ship. The globe, which was the power source and compass, and the octagonal disc, the the key to open and close it."

Interested, Celeste looked at the shining disc in her hand. Holding it up to the starlight, she tried to decrypt the extraterrestrial graphic characters on each side of it.

"Can you read that?" she asked curiously.

"Yes. It says: This is Kal-El of Krypton, our only infant son. Our last hope. Please protect him. We have sent him to you to save your world."

Celeste looked up into Clark's bright blue eyes at his words. "Kal-El huh?"

He smiled. "It means Star-Child."

"Wow, how fitting," his fiancé said, slipping back into his arms. Clark hugged her very tightly and when Celeste felt his arms tense around her, she knew somebody needed his help.

He let go of her and looked into her eyes. "I have to go," he said regretfully.

The young woman nodded understandingly, and within a split second he had vanished, leaving behind his stunned fiancé with her hair tousled from the gust of his super speeding.


	23. Chapter 21

**A/N: My dear readers, this chapter will explain why Lois is so bitchy to Celeste… Enjoy!**

**Busard, Lois' reaction to the engagement will also be a topic ;)**

**Thank you very much my amazing betas ****Dragon166, 00Verisimilitude00, and Astha22 :)**

**21.**

It was very strange for Celeste to be back in the main editorial office of the Daily Planet a week after she had arrived in Metropolis. This time, it was much quieter than the first time when she had been in the bullpen of the world's most famous newspaper, as only a few editors were at their desks.

Jimmy Olson was the first to spot the young Australian woman.

"Miss McPherson," he said, walking towards her. "I'm glad that you're back in Metropolis."

She smiled and shook his hand. "Please call me Celeste. I'm really happy to be back," she said sincerely.

Jimmy nodded, looking at her intently. "What brings you here?" he asked curiously.

Celeste turned around to face her fiancé. "Clark and I…," she stopped when she realized that he wasn't there. He had obviously sneaked out to save somebody. Celeste took a second to produce an alibi for him. "Clark and I wanted to say hello and we also wanted to ask you for a favor, but he has forgotten his briefcase and asked me to go ahead."

Jimmy just shrugged. "This is so typical for him," he stated and a big smile appeared on his face. "Can I offer you a cup of coffee?"

A smile soon graced Celeste's face too. "I would love to have one."

The photographer maneuvered the young woman to the coffee machine and poured her a cup. She thanked Jimmy and took a cautious sip.

"What is that fucking bitch doing here?" Lois yelled through the bullpen once she had noticed that Celeste was standing there.

The young ballet dancer almost dropped her coffee. She hadn't expected Lois to be there, but seriously… Who was she fooling? Of course Lois was there.

The older woman walked up to Celeste and Jimmy so that she could look Celeste straight in the eyes.

"Why are you here?" Lois said in a harsh voice, the heat of her gaze practically burning holes in Celeste's forehead. "Clark isn't here, and if I were you I would leave this building as soon as possible. Nobody wants you here."

Jimmy's jaw almost dropped to the floor, as he listened to the rude words from his friend.

Celeste only gulped. What had she done to the woman in front of her that she was that aggressive? "Clark and I...," Celeste tried to explain, but Lois cut into her sentence.

She walked very close to Celeste, invading her personal space. "I don't care at all," she spat, "I also don't want to see you near Clark anymore. It is beyond me why he would even want to spend any time at all with you. He deserves somebody special, somebody who respects him, who knows him and will be with him in good and bad times. _You_," Lois gave out a harsh laugh, "You are the worst he could ever get _party girl_. So, please proceed to the door," the reporter stated, pointing a finger in direction of the exit.

Celeste couldn't believe what was happening. She swallowed, fighting the tears that had sprung into her eyes at Lois's biting tirade. However, Celeste was not one to be cowed in the face of cruel words, especially _false_ cruel words. "Of course Lois because you are the best example of treating Clark respectfully," she said quickly, letting some of her natural sarcasm creep into her tone. "And you are an even better example for knowing him that well," she finished, turning around and running out the bullpen. Once she was in front of the elevators, she pressed the button for the lobby at least a million times before the light dinged above her.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Lois yelled after Celeste, but the ballet dancer didn't listen.

When the door of the elevator finally opened, Clark stood in front of Celeste. She just looked at him, eyes filled with tears. He raised his hand to touch her face, but she pushed him away without a word. She pressed some of the buttons and sobbed until the doors were closed. All she wanted at the moment was to be alone. Clark watched the whole scenario, completely dumbfounded.

When the elevator had vanished, he turned around and looked into the bullpen. Lois was still standing there with her arms crossed over her chest looking at him, looking satisfied with herself. Next to her stood Jimmy, still with his mouth wide open.

Clark walked up to them. "What just happened here?" he demanded curtly, unable to suppress his aggravation.

"I asked her to go, and I told her that she isn't welcome here and she should leave you alone," Lois explained snippily.

"Why in the world would you do such a harsh thing to someone you barely know?" Clark asked her, consumed beyond belief.

"What? I just want the best for you, and this little bitch is everything but good for you," she explained to him, pointing her index finger where Celeste had vanished into the elevator just a couple of minutes ago.

The tall man in front of her ran a hand through his raven black hair in frustration. This was bad. Really bad. Lois somehow hated Celeste, and he couldn't understand why.

"Lois, this is none of your business," Jimmy finally said. "You were so rude to Celeste with no reason at all. You should be ashamed of yourself," he straightened her out.

Clark wanted to say something too, but realized that all of their colleagues had stopped working and were now watching the whole scenario or whispering to each other.

He grabbed Lois' arm, looked around and shoved her roughly into Perry White's office, which was unoccupied at the moment. After he had closed the door, he looked straight into her eyes. "You don't have any right to treat the woman I love so disrespectfully. Lois, I am marrying her in a couple of weeks," he told her, his voice a bit breathless in his anger.

The petite woman's face fell at his words. She nervously began to chew on her thumbnail, and after a moment she looked up at him, her eyes burning with the same righteous anger she had displayed to Celeste so ardently a minute ago. It was just that she really liked Clark. She knew that she had to find a way to beat some sense into him. After a few minutes of reasoning with herself, she stepped forward to touch his cheek.

Shocked by her move, Clark backed up and turned his head away. He couldn't bear to be close to her. When she realized that he was really upset, she withdrew her arm and resumed biting her nail.

"Clark, please," Lois pleaded after watching his reaction. "You have to understand. I only want the best for you. You can't marry this woman. She is very dangerous."

He lowered his gaze to hers. "Lois, what is wrong with you? You don't know what's best for me. And what do you mean that Celeste is dangerous?" he asked, puzzled.

The brunette woman made a second attempt to touch him, and this time he didn't step back. "Please listen to me," she said. "I have proof that this woman is hiding something big from us. I'm sure that she has some sort of history with Lex Luthor. She was definitely on the _Gertrude _the day the New Krypton incident happened; she told Richard herself that she was on the ship. I believe she is also responsible for Superman almost dying."

"What did you just say?" was all Clark could manage to ask, his mind whirring over Lois's words behind his calm façade.

"Yes I'm positive," Lois said, shaking her head. "She helped Luthor to kill Superman, and Superman is not the only one in danger if I'm right," she added, privately thinking about Jason.

Clark knew exactly that she was worried about Jason, but thinking Celeste would be a threat to their son was just ridiculous. He ran a hand through his hair and walked up to the window. "Lois," he said seriously, "Celeste was kidnapped by Lex Luthor. As a matter of fact, she was the one who saved Superman's life."

"Yeah right," Lois said, rolling her eyes. "Is that what she told you? Clark, you are sometimes so naive. She obviously lied to you. She is sneaking into our lives, playing the sweet little ballet angel from the other side of the world when all she really wants is to use us to get to Superman to kill him. Can't you see that?"

Clark turned around and glanced at her.

With all of her blind hate for Celeste, she was trying blame to her for everything related to Lex Luthor.

He was upset. Very upset. But he could also understand the concerns of a mother who was trying to protect her precious son. As long as Lex Luthor was still out there somewhere, there was no way they could assume Jason was safe. Luthor just knew too much about their son.

Clark knew that there was only one way to prove to Lois that Celeste wasn't responsible for the things that had happened on that island, and had nothing to do with Lex Luthor. With a long sigh, he removed his glasses, and looked straight into Lois' eyes. He gulped, predicting her reaction.

"Lois," he said, "Celeste was in greater danger out there than you can imagine. Luthor kidnapped her and when he tried to kill Superman, she saved his life by risking her own."

The reporter put her hand on his cheek. "How can you be so certain about that?" she asked him softly.

He gulped a second time. He knew he had finally reached the point of no return.

"Because I'm Su-" he started to explain, when all of the sudden the door opened.

"Kent, Lane White. What are you two thinking you are doing in my office?" Perry yelled at them.

Clark sighed. He didn't know if he should be upset or relieved that Perry had interrupted his confession to Lois. Lois turned back to face Clark.

"What did you just say?" she asked, her eyes roving over his face questioningly.

Clark's mouth curled into a wide smile. "I said," he began, "I know Celeste is not involved in this. I will marry her in a few weeks Lois, and there is nothing you can do about it, because I love Celeste," he replied and walked calmly out of Perry's office, leaving behind a stunned Lois and equally confused his editor in chief.

Outside, Clark inhaled deeply, closed his eyes and tried to locate Celeste's heartbeat.

When he finally located where she was, he jumped into the elevator and pressed the button for the rooftop.

There she was, standing by the railing, overlooking Metropolis.

He approached her and wrapped his arms securely around her from behind. She let her head fall back on his chest and closed her eyes, relieved that he was finally with her again.

"I'm sorry," he said and placed a kiss on the top of her head.

Celeste turned around and wiped the remaining tears from her face. "It's not your fault," she said reluctantly, "I just don't get why she hates me that much."

She felt a soft kiss on her mouth.

"She thinks you are responsible for Superman being hurt and that you and Luthor are partners in crime," Clark tried to explain the tricky situation.

"What?" Celeste asked him, her eyes wide in shock.

He nodded. "She's been thinking this since she saw you in the hospital."

"Clark, I had to lie to her and Richard in order to protect you. To protect us," Celeste explained, turning back to face the sky.

"I know."

When she turned back to face him, he could see more tears running down her cheeks.

"I almost told her your secret when she attacked me. I feel so bad."

Again she felt his lips on hers. He tenderly reached out to cup her face between his hands and wipe away her tears with his thumbs.

"Celeste, I don't blame you. Even _I_ seriously thought the only way to convince her was to tell her my secret, and I actually almost told her a few minutes ago, but then Perry came into the office and cut me off. And do you know what? I don't care about what she thinks anymore. I love you, and I know you saved my life. And if she can't accept that, then it's her problem," he stated very determinedly. He pulled her closer into his arms, as Celeste started sobbing.

After a few minutes she had calmed down enough to look up at him.

"Well, asking Jimmy to be your best man worked out pretty well," she said sarcastically, rolling her eyes as she remembered that they hadn't even been able to tell the photographer that they were engaged. "Let the real fun begin and move on to tell my parents that we're going to get married."


	24. Chapter 22

**A/N: My dear readers, meet the McPherson Family :D**

**My amazing betas, thank you very much for your help!**

_**Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all and if you don't celebrate Christmas, Happy Holidays!**_

**22.**

After being almost 25 hours on a plane, Clark was more than happy to feel solid ground under his feet again. He hated to fly in planes, but considering that he and Celeste wanted to marry in Sydney, he needed to enter Australia with a paper trail.

After Celeste had finished the _Fame_ performance in Metropolis, they had finally been able to tell Jimmy that they were engaged and to ask him if he wanted to be Clark's Best Man. To say he had been shocked about the news would be a total understatement. He had been more than thrilled to do the favor for his best friend.

Celeste looked very tired. She hadn't been able to sleep during the long flight, and Clark could tell that she was afraid to introduce him to her family. She had explained to him they were very protective over her when it came to her boyfriends. The near heart attacks they had had when she had told them that she not only had a boyfriend, but a fiancé as well, didn't help much either. However, they were slightly mollified once they heard that Clark and Celeste both wanted to come and marry in Sydney so she could be with her family on that special day.

Now the young couple was waiting at the airport for Celeste's parents to pick them up, when all of the sudden her cell phone rang.

"Yea?" she answered.

"Hi munchkin!" her dad never stopped using this pet name for his one and only daughter.

"Hey, Daddy. What's up?"

"Please don't be mad at me, but I am still caught up at the hospital. Your mother has an emergency caesarian, and I have no idea where in the world your brothers are."

Celeste blew a hair lock out of her face. Clark looked at her. She shrugged. Sometimes, she hated her family for being the most disorganized group of people in the world.

"So now what?" she asked annoyed.

"Sweetie, do you mind renting a car and driving by yourself?"

"Daddy, we've been traveling for more than 24 hours. We are a bit tired," she explained, rolling her eyes to Clark.

He couldn't help himself and chuckled. His fiancé sure looked attractive when she was furious.

"Please, munchkin. I will be there as soon as I can."

"Don't munchkin me," she snapped at her dad. "See you when you are back."

Even though she was very tired, she forbid Clark from driving. He tried to argue with her, saying that he was okay navigating on the left side of the road and that he was certainly not as tired as her, but she would not even listen to him as she was still too upset about the fact that her parents hadn't been able to pick them up. _Well, welcome in Australia_, he thought.

As they made their way through the heavy traffic in Sydney, Clark was immersed in his thoughts. His mind circled endlessly over how it would be to meet her parents for the first time, and it didn't help that he only knew little about Celeste's family.

The little he actually knew did help him slightly, at least. Her father was one of the most advanced children's surgeons throughout Australia. He worked at the Westmead Children's Hospital and had just recently performed a very difficult separation of conjoined twins.

Uncomfortable, Clark shifted a bit in his seat. _I wonder how the first meeting with one of the world's best children's surgeons will be, _he thought_._

Then there was her mother. She had been a midwife for more than 30 years and, according to Celeste, she loved her job immensely.

When they finally left the heavy traffic behind and turned onto a small country road, Clark wondered how to approach them. He did not want to come across too geeky, like he was at work, but not too confident as well. With a heavy sigh he looked at Celeste.

"What?" she asked, smiling at him.

"I'm a bit nervous about meeting your parents," he replied sincerely.

Clark noticed a big grin on her face.

"Don't worry they won't eat you. Although, I may have to be careful they really won't as you are _so_ sweet," she teased, giving him a quick kiss before turning back to concentrate on the road.

* * *

Approximately half an hour later, they arrived in Avalon, a north-eastern suburb of Sydney.

Clark was blown away when he took in the beach villa of Celeste's parents. Stunned, he looked at the butler who greeted Celeste and took the car key from her to park the car.

"Thanks Simon," Celeste said to the man. "Could you please make sure that the car is back with the rental company by six this evening?"

"Of course Miss McPherson," the butler replied.

Meanwhile, Clark could not suppress the feeling of awe rising in him. He knew that her dad was a famous surgeon, but this… _This _was a whole other league. He secretly wondered what his parents would think of his in-laws to be.

Celeste interrupted his thoughts by grabbing him by the arm and dragging him into the house.

Immediately the housekeeper came to assist them."Miss McPherson," the elderly lady said happily. "It is so nice to have you back in Australia. How was your trip?"

"It was okay. Celia, this is my fiancé, Clark Kent." Celeste pointed at the lost looking young man next to her.

Celia smiled even wider. "Hello Mr. Kent. It is a pleasure to meet you."

Finally snapping out of his trance, he shook the woman's hand. "Nice to meet you too Celia," he answered shyly.

"Well then, let's go upstairs. Your parents thought about giving you separate rooms, but I convinced them that I am more than sure that that would not be necessary," she said with a wide grin.

Celeste smiled back. "What are we in the 1800s? Wonder how they managed to have five children," she said.

"Five?" Clark looked at her surprised.

"Yes five; I have four brothers," she explained.

After Celia had unpacked their suitcases, Clark was extremely relieved he had made the decision to leave a certain red and blue suit back in Metropolis, they both took showers.

Then Clark and Celeste went into the kitchen to find something to eat.

A young blonde barefooted man, approximately in Clark's age, was already in front of the fridge. He was staring into its illuminated depths with an expression of extreme concentration, obviously searching for something eatable buried within. When he heard people entering the kitchen, he looked up.

"Hey little sister!" he said happily, walking up to her and hugging her tightly.

Celeste gasped for breath for a moment. "Matt it is nice to see you too," she said once she could break from his embrace a bit.

"Well you certainly know how to shock our family, munchkin," he said and Celeste rolled her eyes. Her brothers always teased her about her father's pet name for her. "You almost gave them a heart attack," he continued. "Lucky James and I were around, explaining them that this is not a bad thing as your new husband has to cope with your temper in the future."

Celeste gave him a punch on his arm. "Shut up."

"I love you too sis," he replied looking up in direction Clark. "Who is the handsome man standing in the corner and wondering where you got him into?"

Smiling, Celeste turned around. "Matt, meet Clark. Clark, this is my eldest brother Matt."

Clark stepped forward and shook Matt's hand. "It is nice to meet you," he said.

Matt just looked at the fiancé of his sister while wiggling his nose. "Dude," he said, "You can't marry an Australian chick looking like that." He pointed at Clark's jeans and short sleeve shirt.

Clark looked down at himself. "What's wrong with what I have on?" he asked, puzzled.

Matt turned around, finally discovering what he was looking for in the fridge. With two beer bottles in his hand he walked up to Clark, offering him one. Both men opened the bottles at the same time, smiling at each other, toasting, and taking a big gulp.

Celeste could not believe it. Her brother was such an idiot, but by the look of it Clark was okay with it.

"And now let's see if we have something more appropriate for you to wear," Matt said, beginning to drag Clark up the stairs.

Clark could only shrug at Celeste while following her brother.

Celeste shook her head, once they were out of eyesight. _Great,_ she thought, already deeply embarrassed for being Matt's sister.

She walked into the living room, just as her dad entered the house. When he saw his only daughter, he walked straight to her, arms wide open to hug her. Without hesitation, Celeste jumped into his embrace.

"Daddy!" she said. "Finally. I love you."

"I love you too. Let's see… Did the Yankees feed you alright?" he said looking at her skeptically.

"No worries, Dad, I'm fine," she replied.

Again, her father hugged her.

"Where is mom?" Celeste asked into his arms.

"She will be here in an hour. She can't wait to meet your Mr. Wonderful," he explained. Suddenly he looked up at the sound of people on the stairs.

As he took in the sight of his daughter's fiancé, a wide grin appeared on his face. "Hi Matt, I see you and Celeste's boyfriend are already friends?" he asked.

Celeste turned around and nearly fainted from shock.

Clark was standing on the last step of the stairs. He looked very lost. She could not help bursting out into laughter. Matt had put her fiancé into Australian flag bordies. In other words, how the people from Down Under called their shorts, and a white, red and blue striped t-shirt. The best part was the red and blue thongs or flip-flops, like the rest of the world would call them. To not embarrass Clark even more, Celeste's father walked up to him and shook his hand.

"Well, as far as I am concerned, you are already a full blown beach boy," he said, coughing slightly to hide his obvious amusement.

Very unsure what to do and certainly not used to the Australian humor, Clark gave him his right hand as he ran his left hand through his hair.

"Clark Kent. It is nice to meet you Mr. McPherson."

"Please. Call me Chris," the slightly taller man in front of Clark stated. "Mr. McPherson is my father. So how do you like your new outfit?"

"I think he looks so much better in red and blue," Matt teased.

"I agree," Chris said, smiling cheekily at his son-in-law to-be.

Pushing his glasses even further up his nose, Clark smiled at Celeste. "I've heard that a couple of times before," he replied with a wide grin.

"Especially the Australian flag design," Celeste said, walking up to him and giving him a passionate kiss.


	25. Chapter 23

**A/N: My dear readers, meet the rest of the McPherson family ;)**

**I ****hope you had a pleasant holiday and a happy New Year!**

**My betas, thank you very much for your help :) **

**23.**

A couple of hours later, Clark stood in front of the huge window that faced to the ocean in Celeste's bedroom. Celeste had demanded a time out to take a short nap. Due to his nature, Clark could not sleep when the sun was up.

The view from her room was breathtaking.

Taking a sip from his water bottle, his attention went to a motor yacht parked at the far end of the bay. It was not as big as the _Gertrude_, but it came awfully close. Sighing, he looked at the sailing boat anchored on the other side of the peer. The whole estate was more of a fairytale castle than a mansion.

When he heard Celeste approaching with the intent to embrace him from behind, he turned around to face her and looked down into her beautiful green eyes.

"What?" she asked, extending up onto the tips of her toes and kissing him briefly on his lips.

"Very nice," he replied.

"Me or the ocean?" she teased him with a cheeky smile.

"Everything. You never told me your parents were_ that_ wealthy," he said with another sigh.

"Why? Do you only want to marry me because of my money?"

"You know what I mean."

Celeste turned around, facing the ocean. "Would it have made a difference?" she asked glancing into his eyes again.

"Of course not, but I would have been better prepared."

"As in…?"

"Celeste, I'm not used to have servants at all. I feel a bit lost. Like in a fairytale."

She smiled. "Well welcome, because you are not the only one," Celeste said touching his face with her hand.

* * *

Later that evening, Clark met the rest of the McPherson family. He especially liked Heather, Celeste's mother. She was a very warm and caring woman, deeply in love with her family, who reminded him so much of his own mother.

Celeste's other brothers were very curious about her fiancé. James, who was two years older than her, and who worked as an attorney, was curious about how it was to work as an investigative journalist at the world's most famous newspaper.

Clark liked them all very much, but he had a very soft spot for Celeste's ten years old twin-brothers. During dinner they were glued to his side, listening to his stories about work at the Daily Planet.

When the twins started arguing while whispering to each other, Heather cut between them. "Stop whispering while other people are at the table. If you have anything to say, just say it. And Rick please eat your vegetables."

Rick started to play with the odd looking things on his plate. He hated eggplant.

Jack looked shyly at Clark. "We just wondered if you've ever met Superman?" he asked.

Clark's heart melted. These boys reminded him so much of Jason.

"I've seen him many times but my partner, Lois Lane, is his press contact," he explained amusedly to them.

They looked up at him, a newfound respect in their eyes.

Celeste could not suppress a wide grin. _If only you knew_, she thought, adoring her younger brothers for being that innocent.

"Lois Lane," her mother stated very interested. "Isn't she the one who won the Pulitzer last year?"

Celeste almost chocked her steak. _Don't even go there mother_, she thought. But her mother had just started.

"Yes," Clark replied, obviously extremely uneasy about the topic.

"For the article 'Why the World Doesn't Need Superman'," Heather continued looking very seriously into his eyes.

Clark gulped and reached for his water. "Well she certainly had a point," he cautiously pointed out over the rim of his glass.

Focusing on the guest's reaction, Christopher realized that this topic was more than inconvenient for Clark. The whole world knew that Superman was in love with this reporter woman, but he knew that this didn't give his wife green light to attack Clark Kent, the reporter who just happened to work with her.

"Enough," he said sternly, putting down his fork and knife. "Clark is here for a holiday and to marry our daughter by the way. Just give him a break from his job."

"Fine," his wife snapped and continued to eat. She hated Lois Lane for writing this article, but she had actually to agree with her husband. At his words she realized that Clark was punished enough to work with her almost every day.

Celeste sighed in relief. She didn't want her family to ask Clark these questions. That was none of their business. With an apology in her eyes, she looked to her fiancé. He smiled back at her, relieved that he didn't have to answer any more questions about Superman and Lois Lane.

* * *

After dinner, the whole family proceeded to the living room.

Christopher vanished into the wine cellar and came back with two of his most precious red wines.

Celeste helped her mother and the housekeeper to clean the table and to wash the dishes. Even though the McPherson family had servants, there were certain things Heather wanted to do by herself, especially when her precious family china, which had been passed down for more than a century, was involved.

While she was drying one of the plates, Celeste watched Clark.

He sat between her father and Matt. James was on the other side of the room, relaxing in a recliner chair with his feet hanging over the armrest. The twins were playing with their X-Box in the other living room. All four men were engaged in a conversation over the different apps for the iPhone. Clark was laughing and enjoying his wine, and Matt had got his cell phone out showing Clark some of the newer games.

"Hang on boys," Heather said, fishing around in her handbag with still wet hands. "I have found a very cool one just today," she pointed out, walking over to the four of them. "Here, it's called Sheep Lounge. It's really funny. Have a look." She shifted until she could give Clark the best view of the tiny screen. "You have to try to lounge a sheep into the space by tipping on it."

"Mom, where do you always get the time to find these things?" James asked peering over Clark's shoulder.

"Well, it wasn't me. The girls at work always come with new applications and tell me what is funny and worth it," she replied, handing Clark her iPhone.

"Wait, I have another good one," he said fishing his own out of his pocket and handing it to her. "OctoPaul-Ask the octopus. Really good if you haven't got anything better to do."

Celeste watched the activities in the other room with fascination as she finished drying the rest of the plates. She had never seen Clark so relaxed before. He was engaged into the conversation, laughing and smiling with a kind of carefree attitude that she had yet to see in him. _That's good_, she thought. How often did he have exactly the time to just relax and just be… It was hard for her to find the right word. ...Just to be Clark? Not the geeky reporter at the Daily Planet and especially not the superhero having the weight of the whole world on his shoulders. No, this evening he was only the plain and simple Clark with no major responsibilities and no worries in the world, just a man who enjoyed being together with other people. Celeste smiled. _I need to make sure he sees my family more often_, she thought, while making a mental note when they would have the time to visit Sydney again.

After she had put away the dishes into the cupboard, she walked up to him and cuddled into his lap.

Her dad rolled his eyes. "You know Clark it is really hard to have a rival now. Usually my daughter did this with me," he pointed out smiling.

Clark just gave him a wide grin. "Sorry Chris," he said and kissed her deeply.

The cell phone in Heather's hand rang.

"Well Daddy, this is just the way it is," Heather teased her husband, pressing the answer button and putting the phone to her left ear.

"Superman, we have a situation. We need you here as soon as possible!" the voice on the other side of the line exclaimed and hung up.

* * *

"Dad, don't tell me you aren't relieved that our munchkin is in the hands of a bloke who obviously knows exactly how to handle her," Matt said, laughing like a little boy.

"Well, I have to admit. It comes in handy," Christopher replied taking another sip of his wine as Celeste stubbornly curled her bottom lip in a pretend frown.

None of them realized the look of shock on Heather's face.

She was plain pale.

Terrified, she looked to her daughter and Clark, who was just about to kiss her gently. Then she looked back at the phone in her hand. She hadn't given it back to Clark after he had shown her the OctoPaul-Apps.

"Clark?" she asked with a very shaky voice after a few minutes. "Can I have a word with you?"

He looked up, smiled, and nodded. "I'll be back in a second," he said to Celeste, silently asking her to stand up so he could go to her mother.

Celeste laughed and asked her dad to refill her empty wine glass as she plopped back on the sofa.

Clark followed his mother in law to be into the garden. There she stopped in front of the crimson red roses, which were in a bright spotlight.

"Nice don't you think?" she said picking one of them and handing it to him.

"These are the most beautiful roses I've ever seen," he replied sincerely.

"I know. They are very precious for Chris. Did you know he won the first place in the world flower exhibition?"

Clark shook his head.

"Not many people know this," she said and the next sentence more casually. "Clark you've got a phone call. Somebody desperately needs you but I don't know who it was."

Just now, Clark realized that her heartbeat was about to go over the roof. He looked at her with eyes wide open, finally spotting which phone she had in her hand.

"Shit," was all he could manage to say while he ran his right hand through his raven black hair. Why in the world did all iPhones look like the same?

She gave him back the phone, nervously trying to figure out what to say next.

"Sorry, I have to find out who it was," Clark explained, searching for the menu of answered calls. The woman in front of him just nodded.

When he found the menu and realized who had called, his expression became very concerned.

"We need to talk," Heather finally managed to say.

Clark nodded. "Yes we have to, but I have to take care of this problem first. Could you please let Celeste know I had to go?"

Stunned, she nodded, indicating that she would do him the favor. Then he vanished in a blink of an eye.

After a couple of minutes processing her discovery, Heather made the decision to get her daughter. She certainly needed to talk to her too.

As Celeste was traveling around the world with her profession, Heather had always had the fear of her only daughter meeting and running off with some foreigner. She never liked the idea of Celeste going away, but this, this was so different. How in the world could she live with the fact that her baby girl was about to marry not only a man from another country, but from another planet as well?

When Heather finally had managed to go back to her family, she grabbed her daughter without any explanation and pushed her into the kitchen.

Celeste's confusion showed openly on her face.

Heather closed the kitchen door and looked straight into her daughter's green eyes. "Clark wants you to know that he had to go and I assume that you exactly know what he meant by that."

"What? Where did he go?" Celeste said casually, trying not to arouse suspicion.

"Celeste Fabienne Rebecca McPherson," her mother said very firmly, crossing her arms over her chest. "You let me know what's going on right now!"

Not knowing how to respond, Celeste only looked at her. In her head ten million questions began to form. _What happened out there?,_ was one that immediately jumped to the forefront of her mind.

After ten very long minutes of no words and long stares, Heather got really angry.

"Okay young lady. If you don't want to talk to me, I think you'll be more than happy to talk to your father."

"What is going on?" Celeste finally managed to ask, really confused and concerned.

"When your fiancé returns, your father and I want to talk with both of you," her mother snapped before she turned around to go back to the living room, leaving the completely stunned Celeste in the kitchen.

After her mother had gone, she slipped quickly through the back door to call Clark. Unfortunately, he did not pick up his phone and after three unsuccessful calls, she closed her cell phone and looked up into the starlit sky. She really hoped nothing bad had happened.

When she went back into the house, her family was still in the living room. Matt waved her to sit next to him. "Wow munchkin, it really sucks that Clark got the phone call from his chief editor to cover an important story for the Australian edition of the Daily Planet in the middle of your wedding plans."

Dumbfounded, Celeste glanced to her mother. _Oh my gos__h, she knows!_ she thought. _No wonder mother was so upset!_

Turning away from her mother's sharp gaze, she answered her brother. "Yes, but you've never met Perry White. When he demands his reporters, nothing, and I really mean _nothing, _can hold them back."

Matt seemed to be satisfied with her answer as he went back to tease James about his new girlfriend. Celeste tried to get involved into the conversation, but her head started to spin.

_My parents will kill us_, she thought.


	26. Chapter 24

**A/N: My dear readers, find out why my betas call the McPherson twins torpedo monsters ;)**

**Busard, annabelsmith and Fk306 animelover, thank you sooo much for reviewing!**

**A huge thanks goes also to my betas!**

**24.**

Clark managed to head back to Sydney after more than 24 hours.

The chief of the Metropolis Police Department had found strong evidence that Lex Luthor was still alive. Superman had been checking all the places the Metropolis PD had reported that Luthor had been hiding, but no luck. With not satisfactory outcome in sight, Superman decided to go back to Celeste and her family.

Crossing the Pacific Ocean, his mind turned to question what to expect with the McPherson parents as well. At the moment, he honestly feared more about Celeste's parent's reaction how to deal with the fact that their son-in-law to-be was the one and only savior of the world than Lex Luthoer. He hadn't had the time to contact his fiancé, but he had seen that Celeste had tried to contact him via his cell various times.

When he finally arrived in Avalon, it was two o'clock in the afternoon. He touched down in superspeed behind a huge tree so nobody could see him, and after waiting ten minutes, he walked to a taxi stand to get a cab.

He was thankful that Celeste had written him the SMS with his cover. _International section of the Daily Planet_, he thought. _How on earth did she come up with that?_

When the cab dropped him off at the mansion, Celeste was already waiting in front of the main door. Her expression was very serious. He paid the taxi driver, jumped out of the cab and hugged her tightly.

"I'm really sorry I had to go," he whispered into her ear before landing a light kiss on her lips.

"Try that to explain to my parents," she replied and he knew that she meant business. This would indeed be very interesting. "They are waiting for us in the lounge room," she added and Clark winced.

_Let the party begin_, he thought as he followed her into the house.

Her parents already had taken seat in the lounge room, drinking their afternoon tea.

Christopher smiled when he saw Clark. "Hey, I am happy you are back. Your editor-in-chief really is a handful."

"Well, Perry certainly knows how to get us to work," Clark replied, sitting next to Celeste on the sofa.

Heather only looked into his eyes.

Clark winced again.

"If I may," she began, turning to him. "What story can be so important that you have to stay more than 24 hours in the Sydney office of the Daily Planet?" she asked accusingly.

Clark shifted in his seat nervously. There was no way he could lie to his mother-in-law. "It was about Lex Luthor," he explained.

Celeste's eyes widened in surprise. "What?" she said, looking into his cerulean eyes with alarm and shock.

He nodded. "Yes. He is still alive. They found evidence about his whereabouts. Unfortunately it was a dead end."

A shiver coursed down Celeste's spine. When would this nightmare finally stop? She turned to her parents and saw their concerned eyes resting on her.

"Celeste," her father started to say, but her mother put a hand on his arm and turned to Clark.

"Honey, you don't have to worry about our daughter. Clark will make sure that nothing will happen to her. Right, Clark?" she asked, turning to the man in question.

Clark could only nod. He did not like the direction this conversation was going. He adjusted his glasses and set up a bit straighter. However, as soon as he opened his mouth to say something, his superhearing kicked in.

"Mommy, please help me!"

"Jack!" Clark yelled out surprised and supersped out of the house.

When Christopher and Heather finally realized what had happened, they looked to their daughter who could only manage to bite her lower lip and stall.

* * *

As he ascended in flight Clark tried to locate the cry for help from one of the McPherson twins with his superhearing.

After a couple of minutes he was able to locate the two boys. Apparently they had climbed up the cliffs located north of Avalon. Clark's breath caught at the sight that met his eyes. He found the twins, but they seemed to be in mortal peril. Jack had slipped on one of the cliffs. He was barely able to hold on and keep himself from plummeting into the rough sea underneath. Rick was desperately holding on his brother's hand. Both boys were crying and screaming for help. As Clark rushed in on the scene, Rick lost his grip on to his brother. Clark saw Jack falling down the cliffs, and sped down to the rescue.

Jack closed his eyes in fear. This was it. Why hadn't he listened to his parents' directions not to play in the national park?

All of the sudden, he realized he was not falling anymore. Even though he could feel the air whipping around him, he managed to open his eyes. The first he noticed was that he was somehow flying. Fascinated he turned around and looked into Clark's extraterrestrial blue eyes.

His jaw dropped as he realized that Clark had just saved him from falling into the ocean. He was even more stunned that Clark had wrapped an arm around his waist and was flying with him up the cliffs to his twin brother who had witnessed everything.

After he had x-rayed the area to find out if there was anybody near, Clark flew up the cliffs and touched down just next to Rick.

The twin who had stayed on the top of the cliffs looked at Clark with questions written all over his face. It slowly occurred to him who was standing in front of him.

Gee! It was really and truly Superman, minus the suit and plus glasses.

Clark put Jack back on the floor. "What were you boys doing?" he asked them in his low Superman voice.

The twins just looked at him, not sure what to reply. When the hero started to smile, both boys were more than relieved.

"We made a bet that I would not be able to look over the cliffs. Rick knows that I have a bad fear of highs," Jack muttered, still in awe of Superman.

"I am pretty certain that your parents already told you that it is very dangerous to hang out near the cliffs," Clark said.

Both the twins were very scared and pale. Clark did not want to spook them even more, so he held out his arms to hug them. The twin boys just looked at each other, and then jumped to hug his torso as both started to cry.

* * *

When Clark finally managed to call, Celeste was relieved. He had asked her to come and pick them up from the cliffs.

Heather could not stop arguing with her husband as they drove up to meet up with the hero and their twin sons.

"I always told them it's too dangerous to play in the national park," she said, totally upset.

"Honey, they are two little boys, what did you expect?" her husband asked.

"Well for starters, that they obey our rules. Imagine one of them had fallen down the cliffs!"

"Heather, I hate to burst your bubble, but Jack felt down the cliffs and Clark rescued him," Christopher corrected his wife.

"Bad enough," she snapped.

Celeste rolled her eyes. This was just great. Her mother was in her typical denial phase. How in the world would she and Clark ever get her parents blessings? Granted, Clark had saved her twin brother's life, but her mother was the most stubborn woman she had ever met.

When they finally arrived in the national park, all three of them jumped out of the car and after a walk of ten minutes, they finally arrived at the cliffs.

There they were. Clark was still sitting on the floor, both twins in his lap. One sitting on his right and the other sitting on his left leg. Both of them had their heads buried in his chest, a scene that melted Celeste's heart away.

Heather and Christopher ran to their sons and hugged them tightly.

"Mom, we are so sorry. We will never do it again. We promise," Rick grabbled to his mother while she was kissing the top of his head.

Jack jumped into his father's arms. Christopher picked his son up and hugged him too. He was really happy nothing had happened to the twins.

Celeste walked up to Clark who now was standing and watching the family reunion. She caressed and kissed him tenderly on his lips. Only when they heard her father clearing his throat they realized that they hadn't noticed the people around them for a couple of minutes.

"Thank you for rescuing my little brothers," Celeste whispered into her fiancé's ears when she had finally released his lips. He smiled.

"Clark, could my wife and I have a word with you?" Christopher asked.

The younger man nodded, well aware what would come next.

Christopher put Jack back on his feet and the young boy ran to Celeste. So did his twin brother.

"Are you really marrying Superman?" they asked in unison, more excited than Celeste had ever seen them.

Celeste looked up, as everyone, except the twins, seemed to be staring at her for her decision. Yes, she would marry him because she loved him more than anything on this earth.

"Yes, but you both have to promise me that you won't tell anybody!" And then she started to on a lecture that nobody could ever know that Clark Kent was really Superman.

Meanwhile, Christopher and Heather asked Clark to follow them a little ways off from his wildly gesticulating fiancé.

On one of the cliffs, they stopped and looked into the ocean. The sun was about to set and the sky was enveloped in the most beautiful crimson they had ever seen. When Clark stopped next to them, Heather turned her head to look at Clark.

"Thank you very much for saving the twins," she said sincerely and looked into his deep blue eyes. "I really admire your ability to help people with the powers you have. Your faith in humanity is beyond anything I have ever seen. You are a symbol of hope, and I have no doubt that your intentions with Celeste are sincere," she added her thoughts.

Clark ran his hand through his hair and nodded. There was nothing he could say, after all. He felt very much out of place. Celeste's parents knew his secret now, but what next?

Thankfully, Christopher looked up and began to speak. "Well this is the proof that my wife has a huge crush on Superman," he said with a smirk and with a more serious tone he asked, "Clark, do you love our daughter?"

Clark removed his glasses. He wanted to answer them as the man he really was

"Yes I love her from the bottom of my heart," he answered truthfully.

Christopher nodded and put his hand on Clark's shoulder, both of them watching the sunset. When the sun had finally vanished behind the mountains, he turned back to face Clark. "I know son," he said. "Welcome in our family. I could not wish for a better man for my only daughter. I know that you will make her happy even though you both will have to work on a few issues attached to your 'job'. But I know you will work through it. She is a very special, strong-willed woman and if Celeste is willing to sacrifice so much for you and vice versa, then we won't be standing in your way. We wish you all the best for your future. And to make this clear, _you_ have to convince the twins not to spill who their new brother in law really is," he added with a big wide grin on his face.

Clark wasn't sure how to response to Christopher's speech. Unsure what to do next, he looked into Heather's eyes. She nodded reassuringly and smiled, pulling him into a big group hug together with her husband, indicating that they had accepted him and his heritage and welcoming him in their amazing family without any limitations.


	27. Chapter 25

**A/N: My dear readers, the next chapter for you…**

**Busard: **Yes, Lex Luthor has like 5million lives… :D

**Fk306 animelover: **Thank you very much for reviewing :)

**Supesfan18: **You made my day with your review and the decision to post a possible sequel to DOL _much _easier! Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us.

**A special thanks goes to**** my amazing betas Dragon166, 00Verisimilitude00, and Astha22 :)**

**25.**

Clark could not believe it. It was like in a dream. In only a couple of days he would be marrying the most amazing woman in the world. Lost in his thoughts, he found himself staring into the roaring fire Celeste's friends had built just next to the water. The sound of the waves met in his ears and he held even tighter on Celeste than before, who was lying in his arms in the still slightly warm sand on the beach.

She turned around and looked directly in his deep blue eyes.

He smiled.

"What?" she asked.

Unable to think of a verbal answer, he pulled her closer and kissed her deeply.

When the others saw them, they cheered happily and raised their beer bottles.

Both smiled.

Mathieu looked at Celeste. "Well, speaking of _lovebirds_," he chuckled, "Who is ready to have some beach barbie?"

Everybody in the small group of Celeste's friends and family cheered anew when he started to put the steaks on the grill over the fire.

"Hey, tell us how you two met," Celeste's cousin Amy asked as she waited for her steak.

"Well," Celeste started, "There is a summer dress involved, an incompetent airline employee, my luggage, and a winter coat," she counted with her fingers.

Clark glanced into the beautiful green eyes of the woman in his arms and smiled. "And a six year old boy," he added.

Now Celeste was intrigued by what Clark had just said. "Jason?" she asked.

He nodded. "He spotted you first."

"Really?" she hadn't known this.

"Wow, do we have to beat it out of you two or are you spitting it out voluntarily?" Rochelle, Celeste's other cousin, asked as the couple's words died away to love-filled stares into each other's eyes.

After a couple of seconds, Celeste snapped out of it and smiled widely. "Okay, okay, I surrender," she said and started to tell her friends and family the extraordinary story, how she and Clark met, cautiously letting out the much more interesting Superman part of the story.

After the barbecue-beach-dinner, Clark and Celeste had a long walk hand in hand on the beach. The full moon reflected on the ocean and gave way to the most romantic feeling Celeste had ever felt.

"When will your parents be here tomorrow?" she asked.

"They said the plane will touch down at around 6:30am. This means we have to get up early," he answered with a sneaky smile.

She stopped and raised herself up on the tips of her toes to wrap her arms around his neck. "What does this mean exactly?" she teased.

"It's already after 2am. We have to go back and sleep if we don't want to let them wait," he grinned even wider.

She only smiled and pressed him a kiss on his lips and, in a blink of an eye, they were loving each other on the pleasant cool sand on Avalon Beach in the middle of the night.

* * *

When the sunrays touched her skin the next morning, Celeste was momentarily disconcerted. Her eyes flew open and as she took in the blue sky above her, the sand underneath her thighs, and the sounds of the ocean, she realized that she was still on the beach. She lay there for a moment, taking it all in. After a couple of minutes she noticed that a young policeman was standing in front of her and Clark.

The man smiled widely. "Hey guys. Is everything okay with you?" he asked, smirking.

Celeste lifted her head from Clark's chest. He was still asleep even though he usually could not sleep when the sun was up.

"Hello officer," she greeted as she put a hand on her brow to block some of the sunlight from her eyes. "Yes, we are okay. We just had a bit too much alcohol and felt asleep on the beach," she said not able to suppress a bit of a blush. At that moment she felt incredibly lucky to be properly dressed.

The policeman waved with his right hand. "No worries, I just wanted to make sure you both are all right. Do you belong to the group of people further down the beach?"

"Yes. Are they still there?" Celeste asked.

"A couple of them. They are having fish and chips brekkie," he explained chuckling, walking away to retrieve other stranded people on the beach.

Celeste took Clark's left arm to check the time. It was 5:30am. She leaned a bit over him and kissed on his lips. He smiled and opened his eyes.

"How long are you awake?" she asked indignantly.

"Long enough to pretend to be asleep when the policeman showed up," he admitted.

Celeste chuckled. "No worries. Here in Australia, the policemen are very civilized."

"I noticed," he said and hugged her. After a deep, passionate kiss he told her that they should hit the road if they wanted to be on time at the airport.

* * *

An hour later, they arrived at the gate to welcome Martha and Jonathan.

When Clark spotted them, he walked up to them and hugged both of them happily at the same time.

"Hi son," his dad said.

"Hi, Martha. Jonathan. How was your flight?" Celeste asked, kissing them both on the cheek to welcome them.

"It was okay, although 30 hours is a long time to spend in an airplane," Martha replied.

"Well, don't blame me. I offered you a first class non-stop flight from Smallville to Sydney," Clark chuckled.

Martha rolled her eyes. "You know exactly why we could not take this extremely attractive offer," she said, rolling her eyes and looking over her shoulder.

Jimmy had just left the plane, grinning like a little boy.

"Wow CK," he said. "How awesome is Australia? Hey man. How are you?"

"Hey Jimmy. Nice to see you. Wait until you see the rest of it!" Clark welcomed his friend clapping him on the shoulder, when all of the sudden his cell phone rang.

He rolled his eyes and glanced at Celeste. It was the phone he used as Superman.

She understood.

"Sorry guys I have to get this," he excused himself, taking the call.

"Yes?" he said in his deep Superman voice as he was walking away from the others.

"Dad?" a very young voice on the other end of the line asked.

"Jason. What's up buddy?" Clark asked smiling happily.

"I need you."

Clark turned around. Celeste looked at him with anticipation.

"I will be there as soon as I can," Clark promised his son.

When he closed his phone, he looked at the group of people he loved so much. He needed an explanation to leave and see Jason. Clark made the decision to talk to Celeste first.

"It was Jason," he told her.

Concerned she looked at him. "Did something happen?"

He shook his head. "I don't think so. I think he just misses me."

Celeste nodded. "Of course he misses you," she said as she kissed him. "Just try to not be back too late. I will find an explanation for my extended family why you are not there. Jimmy will be a hard one though."

Clark could not help but look at her with a deep feeling of love. This woman was the most special being he had ever met and at exactly this moment he really asked himself how in the world he deserved to be married to her in only a couple of days.

With a deep kiss, he said goodbye and turned to leave at a normal human pace. Celeste watched him go for a couple of minutes and then turned around to go back to the others.

Blowing a lock of hair out of her face, she smiled as she turned to face them. "Here we go again," she said to herself, thinking of a good explanation why Clark had left them so quickly after the call.


	28. Chapter 26

**A/N: My dear readers, the next chapter for you ;)**

**Fk306 animelover: **Thanks for reviewing!

**Busard: **Your assumption is right, watch out for one of the later chapters ;)

**Lovely Astha22: **Thank you so much for your overall review. DOL wouldn't be the same without your suggestions and constructive criticism!

**Smile-Evily: **I'm very honored that you like my story, thanks for reviewing…

**A special thanks goes to my amazing betas Dragon166, 00Verisimilitude00, and Astha22 :)**

**26.**

After Clark had spent practically the whole night with Jason talking about his concerns – primarily not being able to attend his dad's wedding, Clark decided to make a quick round over Metropolis to make sure everything was all right.

After ten minutes, his attention was drawn to the sound of sirens in downtown Metropolis. Clark focused his x-ray vision and tried to find out what had happened when he realized that a house in downtown Metropolis was on fire.

Superman flew over to the house as fast as he could, x-raying to see if there were people trapped inside. After he noted that there were seven people trapped on the ground floor, he supersped directly into the house. He swiftly reached for the people and helped them out of the burning building. Once outside, he went to the team leader of the fire rescue.

As the fireman noted Superman's presence, he nodded thankfully. "Superman," he said breathlessly, "Thank you so much for your help."

"That's okay. There is nobody in the house anymore, but I don't think it's safe for your men to go in there to put out the fire," Superman told him. A moment later, he was back in the house, leaving the stunned fireman behind in the street.

Superman went into the ground floor where the flames were still very powerful. When he started to blow out the fire, a very familiar person suddenly appeared in front of him.

Lex Luthor, who was disguised as a fireman in a protection mask with an oxygen tank secured on his back, just looked at his opponent and grinned widely as he brought his fist slowly forward.

"Finally," the bald man screamed against the crackle of burning wood and splintering plaster.

"Luthor!" Superman shouted, monitoring the fire out of the corner of his eye.

They didn't have much time to get out of the building as the walls and ceilings were already starting to crack.

"I have finally found a way to destroy you," Lex shouted with a maniacal excitement in his voice.

"Luthor, we have to go out of here, now. The building will collapse," Superman tried to beat some sense into the bald man.

Lex looked around, taking in the scenario in front of him. "The thing is," he said. "I don't care if I die in the flames as long as you are gone. And you know what the best part of my plan is? I will finally get to your son and punish him for killing one of my best henchmen. Good-bye Superman. And this time for real," Lex shouted, slowly opening his fist.

In his palm was a blue powder. He removed the oxygen mask, brought his hand to his mouth and blew the powder straight into the flames.

"I hope you die in agony," Lex added before he vanished as fast as he had appeared in the burning building.

However, Superman neither saw nor heard any of this. As soon as the unknown powder hit his lungs, the dizziness set in, allowing Luthor the escape time he needed. Superman staggered into a red hot wall as the world started to spin around him. Just as he managed to stand upright, he felt a sharp pain in his chest. He took a deep breath in to clear out his lungs, but it only irritated his trachea even further. Coughing, he tried to get out of the collapsing building, but he got trapped between the flames and the debris falling from the ceiling.

Outside, the head fireman peered into the burning building in worry. He suspected that Superman should had come out by now. Yet, the fire was still raging on and becoming more dangerous by the minute with no sign of the Man of Steel at all. In a split second's decision, the head firemen called for his team. "Guys," he addressed the other firemen, "Superman's been in there for over ten minutes." He nodded in the direction of the building behind him. "I think something went wrong. Smith, O'Connor, come with me. We're going in to see what's up," he said as he sprinted in direction of the house.

After a few minutes, the three men emerged from the burning building, supporting the hero between them.

Although usually bursting with questions, the camera and news teams broadcasting about the fire were oddly quiet as their concern for Superman silenced them. They muttered quietly among themselves, noting that Superman was completely covered in dust, couldn't walk alone, was coughing severely, and even had injuries from the fire.

When he all of the sudden collapsed lifeless in the middle of the street, there was absolute silence.

* * *

Celeste helped her mother and Celia to prepare the dinner. Most of her relatives had already arrived and the house was fully packed with people when her cell-phone rang. Smiling, she reached out for it with one hand as she continued chopping onions with her free hand.

"Yes?" she said into the phone, turning around to find her mother. "Mum, could you please give me a hand with these onions?"

"Celeste?" a very young voice with an American accent asked on the other end of the line.

Celeste's heart skipped a beat. "Jason. How did you get my number?" she asked, very concerned.

"Dad gave it to me. I stole Mom's cell phone to call you. We're at the hospital."

"Hey, Celeste," her cousins Amy and Rochelle called out for her in unison. "Where's the beer?"

"Jason, just a second please." Celeste turned her head away from her phone and held her hand over the receiver as she yelled over her shoulder, "In the fridge, where else?" She placed the phone once again against her ear and said seriously, "I'm back now, Jason. What are you doing in the hospital? Did your dad come and visit you?"

The next Celeste could hear was rustling at the other end of the line, than a voice of a woman. _Lois_, she thought.

"Hi, this is Lois White. Who's there?"

"Lois, this is Celeste," Celeste replied, trying to keep calm. Something was definitely off.

Lois sighed loudly, not even attempting to keep the irritation out of her voice. "Celeste," she snapped, "Did Jason try to contact Uncle Clark?"

Celeste evaluated for a second what to say. "Yes," she said slowly. "What happened?"

"Celeste you should come and see this," Jonathan called out in a strained voice.

"In a minute," she called, removing the phone from her ear, "I'm on the phone." Celeste put it back to her ear. "Sorry Lois. What did you just say?"

"Could I talk to Clark or Jimmy?" Lois asked, her voice on edge.

Something in the voice of the reporter alarmed Celeste even more. She bit her lip, her mind working furiously to come up with a believable lie for Lois. At least Jimmy made her life a little easier as he had made the decision to escape the wedding preparations to take a sightseeing tour through the Sydney Harbour. This made it far easier for Celeste to find an alibi for now. "Clark is at the hotel with Jimmy," she told Lois. "They said something about a bachelor party."

"If they call, tell them to contact me as soon as possible. Something happened to Superman. His condition is very serious," Lois said quickly and hung up.

On the other end of the line, Celeste felt as if all of her blood was draining out of her body. Dazedly, she walked into the lounge room, finding absolute silence from her family. She saw Martha who shakily raised a hand to cover her horrified expression. Jonathan had his hand gripping his wife's shoulder in a vice-like grip to give Martha and himself some emotional support. The news anchor was about to report something everyone in the room was waiting for with bated breath.

Celeste turned around and watched the news with wide eyes.

"Channel ten breaking news," the news anchor said. "Approximately two hours ago, a very tragic incident occurred in Metropolis, USA. While trying to rescue seven people from a fire, Superman sustained very serious injuries. Right now, the doctors are doing all they can to revive him, but the outlook is questionable at best. So far they cannot not tell what caused the severe illness of the Man of Steel. In the press conference, the Dean of Medicine at Metropolis General Hospital reported that they are concerned that he won't survive. All of our thoughts are with our savior and we all pray that he will get better against all odds. This was Briana Green, Ten News."

Celeste was in shock. Absently she glanced at the TV screen.

This could not be. It was just a bad dream. She knew Clark would come in a second and ensure with his unique smile that everything was okay.

But when she saw the video of him collapsing in the middle of the street, she too covered her mouth with her hands, suppressing the urge to scream out loud. She saw the paramedics running to him and starting basic live support, when a policeman covered the broadcasting camera with his hands and demanded the news team to switch it off.

Thick tears rolled down Celeste's cheeks.

Everybody in the room was shocked beyond belief. Even though most of them had never seen Superman in person, all of them admired his ability to be there for others almost 24/7. Who could have done this to him?

There were a million questions reverberating around Celeste's head. The most urgent was how she could get to him. Deep in thoughts, she only realized a hand was rubbing her shoulder gently after a minute or two. She turned around and saw her father just next to her. At this moment, she was more than thankful that he knew about Clark's secret.

He hugged her and whispered. "I am so sorry," into her right ear as he kissed her gently on her brow.

Rick and Nick looked up to their sister. "Will he be all right?" they asked in unison with a great concern in their voices, noticing that their sister wasn't even able to understand their question.

"I don't know," Heather replied for her daughter, as her eyes sought out her two elder sons. "Matt, James, could you please take the twins to their room. I don't want them to see any more of this," she asked them silently.

The two young men just nodded and each took a twin. On their way up the stairs, Nick looked to James, who was carrying him in his arms.

"Who will Celeste marry now?" Nick asked.

Rick, who was on the arms of Matt, rolled his eyes at his twin brother. "Dude," he said, "Are you really that stupid? There won't be a wedding."

"You are the stupid one, you idiot." Nick retorted, sticking his tongue out at his twin brother. "In case you haven't noticed, he won't come and help you when you fall down the cliffs next time because he's in the _h.o.s.p.i.t.a.l_."

"In case _you_ haven't noticed, he won't be your brother-in-law either when he dies," Rick spat at his brother.

Matt and James just looked at each other, sensing something was really off.

"Wow, wow, wow. Stop you two will you?" James tried to separate the two little torpedo monsters. "What are you talking about?" he asked, looking back and forth between them.

At his question, the twins looked at each other in alarm. Both fell silent at the same time as it suddenly occurred them that they had let slip the big secret Celeste had asked them to never ever tell anybody.


	29. Chapter 27

**A/N: My dear readers, the next chapter for you…**

**Busard: **The twins are my favorite too :D

**Smile-Evily: **I know that was evil to put them into this situation, but living with a superhero never gets boring, don't you think ;)

**Supesfan: **The hardest thing about writing Lois is, that if staying somehow in canon with SR, there is constantly the question why in the world isn't she able to put one and one together?

**A special thanks goes to my amazing betas Dragon166, 00Verisimilitude00, and Astha22 :)**

**27.**

Lois tossed her cell phone back into her handbag and inhaled deeply as she looked into Jason's cerulean eyes. As always, she was fascinated that her son had the same stunning eye color as his biological father.

Hugging her tightly, Jason closed his eyes and sobbed. A couple of tears of worry for Superman slipped out of his bright blue eyes. After a minute he looked up and noticed Richard approaching them.

Lois, noticing the direction of her son's gaze, raised her eyes to meet her husband's glance.

"Lois," he yelled from the end of the corridor as he ran to embrace her and tousle Jason's hair. "What happened?" he asked breathlessly, having jogged from the parking lot into the hospital.

After releasing a long sight, Lois asked Richard to sit down. Taking a seat next to him, she told him what had happened to Superman. "Apparently he is in a very bad condition," she finished. "The doctors even refuse to let me see him, yet alone Jason. Honey, do you mind taking Jason home? I'd like to stay and wait a bit longer to see if I can find out how he is or even go and see him," she asked her husband as she looked pleadingly into his eyes.

Richard could notice that his wife was seriously concerned about the health of Superman and he suddenly had a strange déjà vu about the last time when the hero had been sick after the New Krypton incident.

After a couple of minutes evaluating what to do, Richard realized that he needed to support Lois. Getting up from his seat, he cupped her face. "Do you want me to stay?" he asked softly.

His wife just shook her head as a tear rolled down her cheek. He understood. She _needed_ to be alone.

Placing a quick kiss on her lips and sweeping up Jason in his arms, Richard walked away. Needless to say, the little boy's cries to remain in the hospital with Superman went unheeded.

Plopping back on the very uncomfortable plastic chair in the waiting room of the hospital, Lois buried her head in her hands and broke out into renewed sobs. She had seen the reports in the news and couldn't get the broadcasted pictures of Superman collapsing amidst the crowd of fire rescue men, EMS's, and the news teams out of her head.

After a few minutes waiting, she got up again and walked restless up and down the corridor. From brief glances out the windows lining the hallway, Lois made out hundreds of people and news teams waiting for any news of Superman's health, all standing vigil outside the hospital.

Sitting down for the second time, she fished her cell phone out of her purse and dialed Clark's number. Listening impatiently to the ringing sound on the other end of the line, she waited for more than a minute, tapping her foot in an incessant and disjointed rhythm on the floor. When she finally got Clark's voicemail, she hung up and dialed Jimmy's number, but had the same outcome.

_I sure hope you two are having fun_, she thought as a man in a white coat approached her.

"Mrs. White?" he asked.

Lois stood up and looked eagerly into his eyes.

The man came closer and introduced himself. "My name is James Millar. I am one of the doctors looking after Superman," he explained.

The woman in front of him just nodded. "Can I see him?" she asked beseechingly.

The doctor's eyes shifted away from Lois's in nerves. "I understand that you two have a relationship?" he asked.

"We are very good friends," Lois explained to the man.

He nodded and asked her to follow him. In front of the intensive care unit, he asked her to put on protective shoe covers and a protective gown. He did the same.

Puzzled, Lois looked at him as she tried to close the belt of the protective gown over her eight months pregnant belly. When she had finally managed to somehow tie the two ends together with shaky hands, the doctor asked her to follow him.

While walking by the dozens of very sick people lying on their beds, Lois' heartbeat accelerated with every step she took to get to the father of her son.

In front of an isolation room, the doctor turned around to face Lois. "He is in a very serious condition and the only reason why I'm allowing you to see him is that I don't want him to be alone."

Unable to digest what Dr. Millar had just said to her, Lois extended her hand and pushed open the door of the room. She found herself standing in a double door system. The physician asked her to change the gown and to put on a facemask, and gloves.

After he had changed too, he opened the door into the main room.

Slowly, Lois walked in as she took in the sight in front of her. The first thing she noticed where the infusion pumps and syringe drivers as well as the heart monitor and the ventilator. Without bothering to process anything at all, her attention was caught by man in the hospital bed.

She put her hand to her mouth, terrified.

Superman was lying in the bed, attached to what seemed to her like millions of cables, wires, and tubes. He was achingly pale and his bare body was only covered with a light sheet. The heart monitor only showed some signs of a heartbeat.

Lois looked on in dread, her heart stuttering erratically as her eyes swept once more around the room and noticed for the first time the breathing tube sticking out of his throat.

Faced with the challenge of taking it all in, and coupled with the unbearable heat and humidity in the room, Lois started to feel very dizzy. Struggling, she tried to hold on something as she felt losing the ground under her feet.

She just noticed somebody catching her in time before she hit the floor.

Concerned, the man who had caught her looked into her eyes. Lois realized that he wasn't James Millar.

He slowly guided her to a chair in the corner and helped her to sit down. "Are you okay?" he asked. "Do you want to step outside and have a drink?"

"I don't think so," Lois replied determinedly. "What happened to Superman?" she asked, her hand shaking slightly as she brought it to her mouth to hide her grimace of shock and devastation.

The man got another chair and sat next to her. "May introduce myself?" he asked. "My name is Emil Hamilton, I am a scientist and physician from the Star Labs. Dr. Millar asked me to help him out as he is not able to discern what happened to Superman." He shifted a bit on his chair and adjusted his glasses as he looked into direction of the man in the hospital bed. "To be honest, I also have no idea what has caused the sudden deterioration of his condition. I only know that his body somehow has started acting like a human body. He has serious second and third degree burns from the fire and his lungs are severely damaged from the smoke inhalation. We don't know what this all exactly means, and we actually don't know if his body can even cope with the treatment we have started. Given his condition, we started treating him on some medications used on humans, but we're not sure if it'll work," Dr Hamilton concluded with a sigh.

Lois just looked at him with her eyes wide open. "Wait a minute, did you just say _human_?" she asked after a moment, shocked beyond belief.

* * *

Celeste sat at her window and looked out into the starlit sky, thick tears running down her cheeks. She could not believe that there was no way for her to help the man she loved so much. She remembered that she had promised him to be always there for him. Devastated by the sheer thought that his condition was anything but fine, she hugged her legs and rocked back and forth. Just the memories of the pictures the news had broadcasted him collapsing in the middle of the street in downtown Metropolis put her into a deep state of desperation.

It was a few minutes before she suddenly noticed that a bright light was shining out of her closet. Hesitantly, she rose slowly from the floor, wiped away the tears from her eyes, and walked like in trance to the source as she opened puzzled the door and was instantly blinded by the intensity of the light.

For a second she turned around to face the window where it was still quite dark outside. Turning back, she realized that the light was coming out of the backpack Kitty had given to her the day she had helped her flee from Lex Luthor.

She took the backpack and opened it.

Inside, there were five of the crystals Lex Luthor had stolen from Superman to built New Krypton.

She had totally forgotten about them in the last couple of months. It had been a verifiable miracle that she had been able to get these crystals out of the United States and into the country in the first place.

Celeste had used her aunt as an alibi, who had created the most beautiful sculptures out of glass for living. That this aunt was very famous in America and Australia, had been no small help either. After getting the crystals into the country, Celeste had figured that the safest place to hide them was in her parent's house in the closet of her old bedroom.

Now, concerned, she took one of them out of the backpack and looked at it. The crystal felt very warm, and all of the sudden the light it was emitting started to pulse. Celeste's brow furrowed in thought as she tried to deliberate what it all meant. As she continued to think, the light out of the crystal got brighter and brighter. Suddenly, Celeste was feeling like the ground under her feet had completely vanished and then she felt like she was falling quickly into nothingness. She cried out for a moment in the shock, but as the feeling went on and on for more than ten minutes, her voice died in her throat. When she finally hit the floor, she felt a stinging pain in her bottom.

"Ouch!" she shrieked as her body made contact with the floor.

Slowly, she rose from the spot where she had landed and tried to fathom just where in the world she was, rubbing her back in pain.

Fascinated, she looked around. Where in the world was she?

She had never seen anything more beautiful in her entire life. Celeste turned around and realized with wide eyes that crystal clear shining crystals reached as far as her eyes could see in all possible forms and shapes.

A cold wind blew around her and she started to shiver, dressed only in her singlet and shorts.

Her attention was once again caught by the crystals in the backpack. All of them were glowing now, every single one in a different color.

All of the sudden, the five crystals levitated from the backpack and made their way into their respective slots where they belonged.

In the meantime the wind got worse and picked up in speed and intensity. Celeste found it difficult to keep standing as she watched what was happening around her, when she suddenly heard a voice.

"Earthling Woman?"

She looked around, puzzled, but couldn't see anybody. "Yes. Who are you?" she yelled against the wind and snow.

"I am in one of the crystals," the voice said. "I am the Artificial Intelligence of Kal-El's biological father. My name is Jor-El. You saved his life," the AI explained.

Celeste had to fight against the storm. "What do you mean?" she asked, her voice reverberating around the ice palace.

Suddenly, there was an even brighter light than the crystals had given off before. Celeste had to cover her eyes, fearing she could be blinded by the intensity of this light.

It took, what she thought forever, for the intensity of the light to decrease. When she heard a loud scream she got really scared.

Terrified, she looked up and could not believe what she saw.

Clark was lying in some kind of a light chamber. He was naked and was screaming his lungs out every time the light touched him. She wanted to get to him when the AI spoke again.

"Do not come any closer!" it demanded. "The light will cause some serious damage to you if you do come too close. You have to wait until he will be better."

Celeste nodded, thick tears rolling over her cheeks. She wasn't able to talk or even to think. It was freezing cold and she started to shiver even more than before. Her eyes were still pinned on the man she was about to marry the next day.

The light was still very intense when she couldn't bear the cold anymore. Shivering, she crouched into a corner, trying to escape the wild wind blowing around her. All she could feel was cold, and she noticed with concern that all of her fingers, toes, arms and legs were numb.

She felt so tired. _Just a little nap_, she thought, before she lost consciousness.

* * *

When Clark opened his eyes, he felt very odd and dizzy. Confused, he looked around. Where in the world was he? The last thing he could remember was the fire and the indescribable pain he had had in his lungs. Slowly, he rose. As he exited the bright light, he was surprised and stunned that he was undressed and in the Fortress of Solitude.

"Kal-El," the AI urged him. "I can hardly detect a heartbeat."

"What?" Clark asked, not understanding what AI Jor-El meant.

"The Earthling woman," the AI explained.

Worried, Clark turned around skimming the fortress for a sign of Celeste.

When he finally found her, covered under a deep layer of snow, he supersped to her and picked her up in his arms. Her body was cold as ice. Concerned, he turned around. There was only one way to save her life. He went into the room he used to use as a bedroom and put her gently on the bed.

There he undressed her until she was bare.

After he had heated up the blankets of the bed with his heatvision, he covered her with all blankets he could find. When she was finally tucked in to warm up, he lay next to her, as he knew the warmth of his body would help the transference of heat from his body to hers.

Kissing her on the brow, he whispered, "I love you," into her ear and fell instantly asleep.


	30. Chapter 28

**A/N: My dear readers, finally the new chapter… Sorry for the delay.**

**Smile-Evily, Busard, Supesfan18: **The upcoming chapters are all my favourites, please let me know what you think of them!

**Busard: **Celeste always knows what is right for the man she loves ;)

**Supesfan18: **All your questions will be answered in this chapter… :)

**OROgoldenpair1: **Thank you for sharing your thoughts with us.

**A huge thanks to my betas Dragon166, 00Verisimilitude00, and Astha22!**

**28.**

Celeste opened her eyes. She had never felt so warm and relaxed before. Surprised, she looked around and realized that she was lying in a very smooth and heated bed. She was in a darkened room, and all she could see was a light coming from another room a little ways off. Slipping back into her clothes, she stood up and looked around, realizing that she was still in the sculpture of ice and crystals. Slowly, she walked into the direction where the light came from.

Clark stood in front of the crystal panel and looked up to the AI hologram of Jor-El.

"What happened to the crystals?" the voice of his biological father asked.

"Lex Luthor, an earth villain, took them and created a new island made with one of them. All the others are back," Clark explained.

"How could he get into the fortress?"

"He knew where it was from our last liaison with Zod. I assume you remember?" Clark asked. It was very strange for him to mention their last encounter.

"I remember. You did not comply my appointments and you wanted to be a human so you could spend your live with one of them."

Celeste walked through one of the crystal arches and stood just behind Clark. He was dressed in black jeans and a black long sleeve t-shirt and hadn't noticed her, so immersed was he in his argument with his father.

"I made a mistake that day," Clark agreed and lowered his head, a small feeling of guilt invading the pit of his stomach. Then he looked up again. "But I do not regret anything."

"Zod almost took over the world," his father's voice said, taunting.

"And I lost her. You made sure of that."

Celeste put her hand on her mouth when the AI spoke more ignominiously and strict. "You cannot be together with a human and be the savior of the world. The two are mutually exclusive."

Clark looked up to the statue of his father and stood up a little straighter. "Yes I can and I will. There is no way you can stop me this time."

"It is not possible," the AI repeated.

The young man shook his head. Sometimes he was really relieved that he could call Martha and Jonathan his parents. "Father, you have no say in this," he said sternly, "This is my decision."

He turned around and saw Celeste standing behind him. She was wearing her top and shorts, and he could see her shivering. He walked over and embraced her, asking her to come a bit closer. She tilted her head and looked at the picture of Jor-El. "Is this your biological father?" she whispered.

Clark nodded.

"This earthling female will make the same mistake the other did," Jor-El predicted.

"Well Mr. Jor-El it is certainly nice to meet you too," Celeste said angrily. She wouldn't leave Clark's father without showing him that she was worthy of his son. And she wasn't afraid of AI Jor-El either.

"Father, it does not have to be the one way or the other. I can have both the woman I love and my live as savior."

"How do you know? I am always right," the AI said.

"Really?" Clark asked. "I can remember you saying that I would never be able to mate an earthling female, yet alone to father a child."

"Yes and that is true. There is no way to combine our DNA with the DNA of an earthling."

"Well I've got news for you. I have a son. He is six years old and was conceived in this very fortress."

"This is not possible. This is _not_ possible. This is _NOT _possible!" the AI said, shaking his head.

All of the sudden the voice of the AI Jor-El vanished and a bright light flashed from the spot where his projection had been. Clark pulled Celeste closer into his arms and covered her head as the light was too bright for her earthly eyes to absorb. They both shielded their vision from the blinding whiteness.

"Kal-El my precious son," a female voice said.

Both looked up to stare at the figure approaching them. Clark couldn't believe that the projection of his birth mother was standing before them. Lara looked so real that Celeste reached out to touch the hand Lara was holding out to them.

"Mother," he realized, his voice shaky.

"She is so beautiful. Almost like a fairy," Celeste whispered into Clark's ear.

"Your father knew he would be setting you an impossible task to live as a God amongst humans. This is why he made sure that you would learn to utilize your abilities the best way possible," Lara explained. "He provided you with all important and necessary information to live on this planet. However, he has never thought about the possibility that you could fall in love with an Earth woman," she smiled. "He is a scientist after all, and it is not in his nature to account for love. The fact that you can see this recording now confirms my fears that something surely has happened." She stepped a bit closer, so close that Clark could almost feel her. "Your father only saw the scientific side of your life on Earth. I can see in your heart. You both are very special, and I give you all my best wishes and blessings for your mutual future. I love you Kal-El," AI Lara said, bore she vanished in a bright yellow light.

Clark and Celeste hat to cover their eyes once more, and all of the sudden they felt as if they would fall. The light got even brighter and surrounded them completely.

After a few minutes, they both felt as if they were hovering in midair. Clark pulled Celeste closer into his arms. When the light finally ceased, the couple was surprised to be back in Celeste's room in Avalon.

They looked at each other and then their held hands.

"Be careful about the days to come," Lara whispered, her voice like the softest breeze. "I love you Kal-El."

The voice vanished and Celeste felt something drop into her palm. So did Clark as he was still holding her hand. Slowly, Celeste unclenched her fist and looked at the object that was resting there. She was surprised that it was a white, diamond shaped stone with the House of El crest on it.

Clark looked at the object as well.

"Do you know what this is?" Celeste asked bemusedly, holding it out to him.

He shook his head. "I have no idea. Lara must have given it to us."

The last hours had shaken him up pretty badly. He pulled Celeste closer so he could rest her forehead against hers. "I saw my birth mother for the first time in my life," he said, a tear running down his cheek. It was almost too much for him to bear.

Celeste wiped away the tear, saying, "I know. She is the most beautiful woman I've ever seen in my entire life."

"Thank you for saving my life!" Clark said as he tilted his head and kissed her dearly. When he released her lips, she put her hand on his cheeks.

"What happened to you in Metropolis?" she asked.

"Lex Luthor," he simply answered.

"What?"

Clark nodded and turned around to face the ocean, still covered in the dark. "Celeste, he had something I've never seen before. I think it was some kind of Kryptonite. But it wasn't green, it was blue."

Celeste just looked at him, unable to speak due to her horror.

"Lex had this stuff and somehow exposed me to it," he continued. "I felt instantly sick. I could feel the smoke burning in my lungs and I could feel the heat of the flames. If the firemen hadn't come to rescue me, I wouldn't be alive anymore."

Celeste nodded and pulled him into her arms. They stood there, comforting each other.

"I thought the memory crystals were lost for ever," he stated after a few minutes.

"I had them. Kitty gave them to me before she helped me to escape Lex Luthor."

"Wow," Clark said, surprised about Kitty's cooperativeness.

"Sorry I didn't give them back to you earlier, but I haven't thought of them. There was so much going on in the last couple of months," she apologized.

"That's okay Celeste. At least they were saved and are now back where they belong," Clark reassured her.

The sun was about to rise over the horizon. When they both realized that a new day had begun, he smiled. "Today is our wedding day," he stated, his eyes betraying the excitement he felt.

Celeste nodded. She was very tired, exhausted _and_ confused. "I wonder how the others will react when they find out that we are back!" she answered and wiggled her nose.

"I wonder what chaos I have caused in Metropolis? The second time I vanished out of the hospital without any explanation," he said pensively.

Celeste let go of her fiancé and walked up to get her cell phone. "Speaking of Metropolis. Lois tried to contact Clark and Jimmy when Superman was sick and don't even ask me how confused Jason was. I think you should call them."

"Jason!" Clark realized, his mind immediately jumping to his son.

He took the phone and called Lois. It took a few minutes until somebody picked up and he could hear the clear voice of his little boy.

"Yeah?"

A big smile curled up on Clark's face in relief. "Hi Jason. It's me. How are you?"

"Daddy! Are you okay? You were gone missing and everybody was concerned!" Jason said loudly, forgetting to temper his volume due to his excitement.

"Jason who is it? Give me the phone please. Superman? Are you okay? What happened? Where did you go? I just went out of the hospital room for a minute and you were gone! And why on Earth are you on _Clark's fiancé's phone_?" Lois' voice screamed at the other end.

Clark's smile vanished as he put his hand to his mouth. All of the sudden his face paled in shock.

"Shit!" was all he could manage to say.


	31. Chapter 29

**A/N: ****This chapter is dedicated to my amazing beta Veri who has agreed to do the beta work for me, even though being a huge Clois fan and not to keen of the idea of Clark finding another woman. Thank you so much for your help****!**

**I also have question for you. As the story is coming to an end, are you interested to read a sequel to **_**Dance of Love**_**? Just let me know please :)**

**By the way I really love your reviews!**

**Gabriella Jane London: **Thank you so much for reviewing! Here is what you were waiting for ;)

**Busard:** I know, poor Clark :D

**Supesfan18:** Only three chapters to go!

**Smile-Evily:** Thank you sooo much!

**Annamariadv20:** You made my day with your review. I am more than happy to give you another chance. Auf jeden Fall!

**Winthjo:** Thanks for reviewing! I know I'm very critical with Lois in this story :D. You will love this chapter, I'm totally sure of this…

**A huge thanks goes to my other amazing and very inspiring betas and friends Dragon166 and Astha22. You helped me making **_**Dance of Love**_** to the great story my readers love! Big Hugs :)**

**29.**

"Superman?" Lois asked the second time in the phone.

Clark closed his eyes and gulped. "We need to talk," he said and hung up.

The woman on the other end of the line just looked at the phone. Slowly she put the phone back on the table and looked up. When she saw her son, she was very concerned about his reaction.

Jason just stood in front of her and bit his lower lip. Thick tears rolled down his cheeks. Then he ran into his room.

Lois just watched after him, very confused.

* * *

Clark looked at Celeste and gave her the cell phone back.

He could not speak.

All he could do was to walk down the stairs and run to the peer allocated on the back of the house. There, he felt on his knees and buried his face in his hands.

When Celeste approached him, he looked up, his eyes red from crying. She was really concerned about his reaction and crouched down to hug him. He leaned into her embrace and rested his head on her shoulder.

"What happened?" she asked him, concerned.

He looked up.

"Jason was on the phone. He was so happy that I'm okay that he called me _daddy_. Lois got the phone and saw the caller ID. She knows that the call was from Australia and your phone Celeste, I gave Jason the number before I came back from his visit," he explained.

Celeste stood up and watched thoughtfully the red morning sun rising over the dark blue ocean.

"You have to go and talk to her," she said.

He also stood up and put a hand on her cheek. A gesture to signal her to look at him.

"I can't Celeste."

Celeste balled her fists. She was really upset about what had happened in the last twelve hours.

"Yes you can and you will," she yelled at him.

In disbelief he looked at her. He had never seen her that upset in all the time they had known each other.

With tears of fury in her eyes, she looked at him. "You may be faster than a speeding bullet, but when it comes to the women in your life the Man of Steel still drives with the handbrakes on," she snapped at him, and buried her face in her hands.

Clark approached her, pulled her into his arms and kissed the top of her head.

"I don't know what to do," he tried to explain.

Celeste looked up at him and put a hand on his cheek.

"How can somebody with x-ray vision be so blind?" she asked softly. "She is the mother of your son. She has a right to know! Seize the moment Clark. Go and tell her _everything_."

"But I can't. Today is our wedding day," he said visibly upset.

"Yes you can and you will," Celeste repeated what she had said before. „I won't marry you if you don't clarify things with Lois." Then she turned around and crossed her arms over her chest. "Please go," she sobbed.

Clark wanted to touch her, to tell her that everything would be all right. But he couldn't give her that promise. He turned around and looked into the sun. Then he tilted his head back and closed his eyes.

„I love you Celeste," he said and shot in lighting speed into the sky.

* * *

The knock on the door pulled Lois out of her thoughts. She went to the door and opened it.

In front of her stood Clark. But his appearance was _very _different. He was dressed into black jeans and a black long-arm shirt. His hair was falling into his face and the thing that really puzzled her was the fact that he did not wear his glasses.

"Can I come in?" he asked.

Lois was so perplexed, that she could only wave him in.

Jason, who had heard his biological father coming, stormed down the stairs and jumped straight into Clark's arms. There he hugged his dad for more than five minutes. After he had calmed down a bit, he looked up to Clark.

"I'm sorry, dad. I didn't mean to let it slip out," he apologized.

His father stroked over his brown hair. "It's okay Jason. It's not your fault."

Lois just watched what happened. Confused. She wanted an explanation for the odd scenario in front of her.

"Jason, sweetheart. Could you please go upstairs? I have to talk to Clark in private."

The boy looked from his mother to his father and back. Then he hugged Clark again.

"Okay. See you," he said to him and walked up the stairs. Clark was sure that not one topic of his conversation with Lois would slip Jason's attention.

When Jason had finally vanished in his room, Lois asked Clark to follow her into the kitchen.

"Okay what happened? Shouldn't you be in Australia and marry your Mrs. Wonderful? And how do you look? Can I offer you a cup of coffee?" she bombarded him with questions after he had taken his place on one of the bar stools.

He ran both of his hands through his hair. "No thank you... Lois we need to talk!"

Lois stopped with what she had just done. He had said these two sentences in his low Superman voice.

Stunned, she turned around and looked at him with big eyes.

He let out a long sigh, stood up and changed his hair into how he had it as Superman.

The full coffeepot tumbled towards the floor, but Clark was faster and caught it midway, and looking up to Lois, put it back on the bench top.

He smiled at her as he didn't know what else to do. Lois was still speechless about this revelation and walked like in trance into the living room. She needed to sit down and this like right now.

Clark followed her and sat down next to her, turning his head to face her. He wanted her to say something. Anything. It was not a good sign that she didn't say anything at all for _that_ long. But he had to admit that with the bombshell he had just dropped on her, it was hard to get a clear thought together, even for the bloodhound Lois Lane White.

Lois pulled her legs up on the couch and hugged them, which looked a bit odd, considering her eight month pregnant belly being in the way.

Tears were rolling down her cheeks. She looked into his eyes.

"Why?" she asked.

Now Clark was lost.

"What do you mean?" he asked the counter question.

"Why Clark? Why. Did. You. _Lie_. To. Me. _All_. _These_. _YEARS_?" Her voice becoming louder with every word.

He could not answer her this question. So many things had happened. He was exhausted from what had happened in the past twenty four hours, and he was concerned about Celeste.

Meanwhile, Lois rose from the couch, and walked up to the window in the living room. She could not bear it to be close to him at the moment.

"You lied to me about your true identity," she continued, inhaling deeply. "We have a son - Jason is our son Clark! And you never thought about telling me who you really are?"

It was almost unbearable to think about the fact that the geeky reporter who was working as her partner almost every day next to and with her was Superman, the father of her child!

"I'm sorry." Clark didn't know what to say or what to do. He had a really good talent to mess up with the women in his life. Maybe Celeste had been right.

Lois turned around to face him. Tears were rolling down her cheeks. She thought about the many times they had spent together and than it hit her like a train.

She remembered him being her and Richard's Best Man and fainted.

Clark jumped up and caught her just in time before she felt on the floor.

Even Jason came back downstairs, seriously concerned about the well-being of his mother as Clark put the unconscious woman gently on the couch.

"Is she okay?" the little boy asked concern etching in his eyes.

"Yes. It was just too much for her to take in." Clark explained to his son.

When Lois finally woke up again, she had a severe migraine. She opened her eyes and looked into two pairs of very concerned eyes.

"Mummy!" Jason yelled and jumped into her arms.

His mother hugged him thoroughly, while looking into Clark's eyes. The only way to handle this strange situation was to talk to each other like adults. She looked back to Jason and smiled.

"I am fine little munchkin," she pulled him into her arms. "Since when have you known about your dad?" she whispered into his ears.

Jason looked into his father's eyes, who gave him a reassuring smile that he was allowed to tell the truth now.

"When I saw him for the first time."

Now Lois was stunned. "What do you mean when you saw him the first time?"

"Mum, the first time I saw him. At the Daily Planet. You and daddy Richard had to talk about something very important and they broadcasted pictures of Superman on television. I saw Clark and I knew."

Wow, this piece of shocking information hit his mother like a truck. Why hadn't she been able to add one and one together in all these years?

Slowly, she got into a sitting position and looked back and forth between the boy and the man sitting left to her. Her head was spinning . She needed answers and that _now_.

"Okay Smallville," she said, crossing her arms over her chest. "Spit it out! _Everything,_ and don't even try to lie to me anymore!"

Her eyes were glued to him. Clark didn't know what to do. Nervously, he stood up and walked to the window to look outside.

"Lois I loved you so much, you can't even imagine," he said, turning back to look into her eyes. Jason had cuddled up into her lap and Clark figured that his son had made the decision to stay with them so his mother wouldn't consider killing his dad. Like that was even possible. Well with Kryptonite it was, and she knew exactly about his weakness to the green meteor rock, he realized.

"Yeah right Clark. And you showed me your love by _lying_ to me _all_ that time," she yelled at him.

After a long sigh, Clark walked up to her and crouched down to look into her eyes.

This was a bit overwhelming for her to have him that close again. She gulped.

"Lois," he said softly. "I turned back time because I loved you."

"What? How?" she whispered, not able to digest what he had just said.

He stood up and walked back to the window to look once more over the ocean.

"It was Lex. He caused an earthquake," he started to explain. "I was very busy, trying to save hundreds of people. And I made the wrong decision to follow the wrong missle. When I came back, it was... too late."

Lois didn't understand. She stood up and walked to him, putting her hand on his cheek, forcing him to face her.

"What do you mean?"

He looked deep into her eyes. It was so hard to re-experience what had happened that day. A single tear rolled down his cheek and he only whispered:

"Lois, you died that day. Your car was caught in an earth crack buried under thousands of pounds or rubble. You suffocated. I was too late. I couldn't help you anymore. It was so hard to bear. I panicked. A life without you? I couldn't imagine. This is why I turned back time."

To say Lois was shocked would be a total understatement. She was beyond belief. And she needed to sit down again as she felt _very_ dizzy.

"You turned back time?" was all she could manage to ask.

He just nodded.

"Oh my gosh. I didn't know."

"No you didn't," he confirmed and sat next to her as Jason jumped into his lap.

"Dad, what happened next?" the boy asked. Turing back time sounded very exciting and he hadn't even known that his father was able to do such a thing.

"Well, we went back to work as if nothing had happened. Your mother chased the big stories while she was pining over Superman and considered me to be a bit more than a pest," Clark continued bitterly.

"I did not consider you as a pest and I certainly didn't pin over Superman," Lois tried to defend herself. „Okay, I didn't care about Clark and I had a tiny little crush on Superman. So what?"

Now Clark got angry and Jason jumped a bit when he started to talk.

"Yes Lois. So what?" he said, trying to suppress all the feelings crushing over him. "Do you know what it means to love somebody who is totally in love with your alter ego?"

Lois looked at him frustrated and puzzled. "But you are Superman. You can't be jealous of yourself."

"Lois, Clark Kent is who I am. Superman is what I can do to help people. You have no idea how I felt!" Clark stated walking up and down the living room with Jason still on his arms. The young boy was really thrilled to be able to hear the whole love story of his parents and cuddled his arms around his father's neck. This calmed Clark a bit down. He was more than thankful that his son was with him.

"Do you think it was easy to see you falling head over heels for Superman and treating me like dirt as Clark?" he continued. „Do you think this didn't hurt? Don't you think I have feelings too?"

The young woman pursed her lips and started to bite on her thumb. This was _so_ much to take in she didn't even know, where to start to think about.

"But I have to give you credit for getting more and more suspicious."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you somehow put it together. Can you remember when we were assigned to go to the Niagara Falls?"

Lois nodded. _Oh yeah. The Niagara Falls, _she thought.

"You tricked me that day."

"Hang on. What did you just say?"

Clark inhaled deeply. He knew that she wouldn't like this part at all. "You shot me."

"What did I do?" Lois asked, confused. She would never shoot anybody and least of all her partner even though at the moment she was pretty close killing him. It confused her even more, when she saw a smile appearing on his face.

"You shot me. With a blank. I actually thought it was a real bullet and told you that Clark Kent would be dead after the shot and you just said. 'Gotch ya!'"

Now Lois started to smile too. This really sounded like something she would do to prove a theory of hers. She walked up to him and put a hand on his cheek.

"What happened afterwards?"

He leaned into her hand. The feeling he had was indescribable. To be able to finally tell her everything that happened was the biggest relief he had ever felt.

"Disaster happened," he explained. "I showed you everything. My most deepest secrets and we spend the night together," he whispered into her ear.

Lois' eyes widened. "Do you mean _the_ night?"

He looked into Jason's eyes, kissed him on the brow and nodded.

"Yes Lois," he confirmed and pulled her into his arms, both comforting each other with Jason in their hug for more than ten minutes. "I gave up my abilities to be with you, but then Zod and Lex happened, and I had to get my powers back in order to defeat them."

Lois only looked at him with eyes wide open covering her mouth.

"Clark, why can't I remember anything about what you just told me?"

He gulped, as he knew that she would be furious.

"Lois. Once I had my powers back you couldn't handle it. You couldn't handle my secret at all. You were always very concerned about me and my well-being. You always drove me, and yourself nuts whenever I had to go. That is why I made the decision to wipe out your memories."

"You did what?" she yelled at him.

He gulped "I wiped out all of your memories that you had about us being together and me being Superman."

The slap in his face echoed throughout the house. Lois was standing in front of him, her hands stemmed into her sides. She was absolutely furious.

"You wiped out my memories about us being together?" she asked just to make sure she had understood him right the first time.

He just nodded. "Yes, and to be honest, I couldn't bear it. I absolutely regretted it. So much, that I left Earth."

Finally Lois understood. Unable to digest what he had just said, she understood why he had been gone for five years of their lives.

_Because of her!_

Jason jumped out of Clark's arms and walked to his mother who had collapsed on the floor where she had been standing. Sobbing she pulled him into her arms and caressed him as Clark watched them. When she had finally calmed down, she looked up to Clark.

"I'm so sorry for everything," she apologized.

He walked up to her and kneeled down caressing her cheek.

"Don't be. We both made mistakes. All to many of them. The most important thing for us now, is to be there for Jason. He needs us. And he needs to know that we love him and that it doesn't matter that we have our own lives now. We will always be there for you!" he said to his son as he placed a quick kiss on Lois' lips, both looking at their son.

Now the little boy had tears in his eyes. "You won't be together anymore?" he asked reluctantly.

Both of his parents shook their heads. No they wouldn't.

"Jason. We made our decision a long time ago and have moved on. Your mother is married to Richard who loves you like his own son. And I," Clark's heartbeat accelerated dangerously by the thought of it. "…I will marry the woman I sincerely love," looking into Lois' eyes.

She lifted her hand and touched him. "Does she know?"

He nodded. "She's known since very early when I met her."

"Wow," was all Lois could say. "Then go back to her. Today is your wedding day! And don't make her wait any longer," she added with a wide grin.

He smiled and hugged her tightly.

"I will always respect you and love you as a friend and the mother of my child Lois. And I will always be there for you and Jason."

A single tear ran down her cheek. "The same goes for you Clark Kent. And now go!"

When he was just about to open the door, Jason jumped into his arms.

"Dad. I want to come with you! Please!"

Clark looked at Lois with a questioning glance. All the young woman could do was to start chewing on her thumb.


	32. Chapter 30

**A/N: My dear readers, this chapter is dedicated to all of you!**

**I really appreciate every reader and reviewer who has given this story about Clark Kent meeting a new woman in his life a chance! **

**A huge thanks to my betas Dragon166, and Astha22!**

**30.**

Celeste went into the shower and turned on the hot water.

What a disaster!

She had called off the wedding just a couple of hours ago and all of her friends, relatives, and family had been very angry as Celeste had refused to explain the reason why. Most of the guests had already left with only a few people still left in the huge mansion.

James and Matt were sitting in the kitchen, absently playing with their empty beer bottles in front of them.

Mathieu and Thomas argued over who should go up and comfort Celeste, and Alexander was just sitting on the couch in the lounge room with his wife in his arms.

Martha and Jonathan were sitting in the living room with Jimmy, Heather, Christopher and the twins, unable to speak. They all were dressed in their formal gowns ready for the wedding.

When all of the sudden the backdoor to the kitchen opened, and Clark walked in, Matt and James smiled.

"Seriously is it always that turbulent with you?" Matt asked his brother in law to be as he smirked.

The man from Metropolis grinned. "I'm afraid so. Where is she?"

The brothers smiled and pointed their fingers up. Clark just nodded.

"May I ask you to take care of two very special friends of mine? This is Lois and her son Jason," he introduced the newcomers and went off see Celeste, while Matt and James formed the cheekiest grin ever, and Jimmy's jaw dropped to the floor.

As Clark was walking up the stairs, Jimmy stood up to walk over to Lois and Jason.

"How in the world did you come to Australia?" he asked her, totally puzzled.

Lois just smiled and kissed him on his right cheek. "Jimmy, this is a very long story!"

* * *

Celeste didn't even know how long the hot water had been running down her spine.

She was still overwhelmed about the fact that Clark hadn't shown up in time for their wedding.

It was already dark outside and she had given up hope for him coming back at all. But the main reason she had sent all the people away was that fact that she hadn't been able to stand their questions and teasing why Clark hadn't shown up any longer.

When the young woman was just about to get out of the shower, Clark appeared in front of her, putting his right hand on the shower screen.

At first Celeste jumped, frightened. But then she just smiled and put her hand on his. She was absolutely relieved to see him, Clark jumped into the shower with still his clothes on. He wanted to be with her, to feel her, to let her know that he didn't want to be without her any more.

They both looked into each other's eyes as the water soaked him completely wet.

He pulled the naked woman closer and kissed her passionately. When they allowed themselves to get some air, he brushed a wet lock of hair behind her ear.

"Why did you send all our guests away?" he asked curiously.

"They annoyed me with their stupid questions about where you are. And mind you, I didn't know if you would come back at all," she said, looking reproachful in his eyes as she stubborn curled her bottom lip to make her point.

He just smiled and kissed her more passionate than before. "I will never ever leave you alone. I love you Celeste. Don't you know that already?" he asked between his kisses.

Of course she knew! But she would never get tired of him saying these words to her. She bit her lip and jumped into his lap, wrapping her legs around him and deepening the kiss.

Clark couldn't help but grin. "Don't you think we should wait until _after_ our wedding?"

She silenced him with another passionate kiss. "Not at all!" was all she whispered into his ear, starting to get rid of his shirt.

"Smallville!"

Clark and Celeste jumped when they heard Lois' voice.

The pregnant woman was standing in the middle of the bathroom with her arms crossed over her chest, and her right food tapping on the floor, looking at the two lovebirds. Her facial expression was a mixture out of amusement and seriousness.

"What are you two thinking you are doing?"

Celeste just burst out into laugher. "Hi Lois. I don't even ask how you got into my bathroom in Sydney," she said after she had recovered.

"Hi Celeste. No, please don't. Do you mind me kidnapping this gentleman? There is something he needs to do right now."

The young ballet dancer smiled, put her hands on Clark's cheeks and kissed him gently. "Not at all," she whispered once she had released his lips.

* * *

Celeste was standing in front of the mirror in her bedroom an hour later, ready for the wedding. Her heart was on the verge of beating out of her chest, when she heard a knock on her door.

It was Mathieu who stuck his head into the room. "May I come in?" he asked.

The young woman smiled and nodded.

Mathieu was absolutely stunned when he looked at Celeste. She was even more beautiful than ever in her breathtaking slime-line gown with lace cap sleeves and an underbust sash. Her absolutely gorgeous smile accentuated her appearance even more.

"You look...," Mathieu tried to put his thoughts into words as he lifted his left eyebrow, but he totally failed and just pointed with his hands at her as he whistled.

Celeste walked up to him and hugged him tightly. "Thank you Mathieu. For everything!" she said sincerely.

He kissed her briefly on her lips and was surprised that it felt different compared to the last time when he had kissed her. So much had happened. And he could not help, but wonder that he still had strong feelings for her. Feelings that had shifted into loving her like a really good friend. All he wanted for her was to be happy for the rest of her life. And man, was she happy. She was more than happy. She was lucky to be able to marry a man like Clark.

Mathieu really admired Clark Kent/Superman and as a matter of fact also the woman he would be able to call his wife from today on.

"Mathieu are you okay?" Celeste's voice snapped him out of his thoughts.

Had he really drifted so far away? "Yes, I'm fine," he reassured her. "It's just. I always had dreams about you standing in a white dress in front of me as _my_ bride."

The young woman's glance became very soft. She put a hand on her ex-boyfriend's cheek. "It would have never worked with us."

Even though the words hit him very hard, Mathieu knew that Celeste was right. He had been in bed with Tania just the evening when Celeste had been off to Metropolis. And he knew exactly that this certainly hadn't been the last time happening if they would have stayed together.

"I know Celeste. I knew I lost you the moment I surprised you and Clark in your hotel room in Metropolis. The way he loves you is beyond anything I've ever seen and this makes me really happy for you. Honestly."

Now Celeste hugged him another time, but this time she squeezed him even harder. "I will miss you so much when I have to go back to Metropolis," she said, starting to sob.

Mathieu looked into her eyes and brushed cautiously a tear out of her face. "Don't be sweetheart. I won't be far away," he said with a cheeky smile on his face.

Surprised, she looked up at him. "What do you mean?"

"Your Mister Wonderful has organized me a job in Star City," Mathieu explained.

"You're joking!" Celeste yelled out in delight.

"No, it's the truth. Apparently he is very good friends with Oliver Queen who just happened to need a pilot for his private jet. Talking about lucky," Mathieu realized.

When Celeste's dad entered the room and asked her if she was ready, Celeste nodded and placed another kiss on Mathieu's lips.

"I'm so happy for you," she said and lifted her hand to touch his cheek.

He caught her hand before she wanted to let him go and glanced deep into her eyes. „All the best for you both, and Celeste… if you ever need me, I will be there for you. Always."

* * *

The sand underneath her bare feet felt very soft and warm. Celeste looked around and was stunned about what Matt and James had put together in just over an hour. They had somehow organized everything for the wedding. Even a reverend at this time of the day.

As she and Chris waited for the music to start, she looked deep into the man's eyes, who was waiting for her. Clark looked absolutely handsome in the soft light the torches, strung up between him and the guests, were shining on him. His wedding suit, black trousers and a white dress shirt, with rolled up sleeves, and the upper button open over his bare chest, made him look very sexy. Like all the other guests, assembled on the beach to witness the wedding, he was also barefoot. Celeste smiled and took her father's hand.

The wedding music started to play. Clark concentrated his glance to the two people approaching him.

There she was, the most amazing woman in his entire life. _Celeste McPherson_, the woman he loved and he was waiting for to marry.

Her stunning long dress wafted through the slightly warm sand and touched her naked feet, as her father Christopher McPherson was walking her down the beach aisle.

She looked so happy in the soft light the torches were projecting on her beautiful face.

_This is it, the point of no return_, Clark thought. He was about to marry the woman he loved and admired so much, who knew exactly how to love him, and brought out this side of him, he didn't even know existed. She was contagious. Her spirit, her humor, her enthusiasm, and her unconditional love for him.

_His true soulmate!_

His eyes were still glued on her, when he felt a much smaller hand in his. He looked around and saw Jason smiling up at him.

Christopher kissed his daughter's hand and handed her over to his son in law.

Clark took her hand and pulled his bride closer. "Nice dress. Where did you get it from?" he whispered into her ear with a big smile on his face.

The woman in his arms formed a cheeky smile and nodded into Martha's direction who couldn't help but grin widely.

"Your mum made it out of a very nice fabric you left with me after our fist night together," she sweetly whispered.

He couldn't help, but pull her closer and kissing her passionately. There were no words in the world, which could describe the feeling he had for the woman in his arms and as the reverend started with the wedding ceremony, he whispered. "I love you!" into her ears.

_I can feel you in the rising tide_

_Can you feel me by the fire side_

_From the moonlight_

_Through the cherry trees_

_Open the roof and take in the view_

'_Cuz you're my sweetest dream come true_

_You're my sweetest dream come true_

_You're my sweetest dream come true_

_Colour the dusk, deep navy blue_

_And try to be brave_

_Cause I'll be right beside you_

_There's a world so high_

_Hold out your hands_

_And you can go anywhere_

_So reach for the stars_

_Cause I'll be waiting up there_

_And you can finally fly_

_Cause you'll be lighter than air_

_Colour the dusk, deep navy blue_

_And try to be brave_

_Cause I'll be right beside you_

_There's a world so high_

_Hold out your hands_

_And you can go anywhere_

_So reach for the stars_

_Cause I'll be waiting up there_

_And you can finally fly_

'_Cause you'll be lighter than air_

'_Cause you'll be lighter than air_

'_Cause you'll be lighter than air_

_**Armin Van Buuren - Youtopia**_


	33. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

Lois watched Celeste dancing with Thomas and Alexander to Enrique Iglesias' song 'Tonight', coming out of the huge sound system, located in one of the beautiful white cabinets in the living room of the McPherson family.

The young reporter was absolutely fascinated about the way the Australian ballet dancer could express herself in dance. Looking at Clark, who was standing next to her and Jason, also watching the three dancers, Lois stunned realized that her partner was deeply in love with his wife. The way he was looking at Celeste was beyond anything Lois had ever seen before.

While Celeste's two dance partners were swirling her around with great fun, Clark had a big smile on his face.

When the song was over and the next song started to play, he turned his head and looked into Lois' eyes. "Would you please excuse me? I've promised my wife the next dance," he said softly. The woman next to him nodded and smiled understandingly.

Clark placed a quick kiss on Lois' cheek, scooped Jason into his arms, and walked to the dance floor, temporarily made in the living room of the McPherson villa, where Celeste still had enormous fun with Alexander and Thomas.

"Can this young gentleman and I take over?" Clark asked the two men.

Both male ballet dancers smiled, each kissing Celeste's hand and leaving to join the other guests dancing.

Clark kissed the woman in his arms softly on her lips as he pulled her closer. Jason, who was still on his arm, formed a cheeky smile.

"What?" his father asked when he had finally released Celeste's lips.

The boy still smiled. "Daddy, does this mean that I have two dads and moms now?"

Both adults laughed and pulled him closer into their embracement. This little boy was absolutely adorable. Jason put his head on his father's shoulder and rubbed his eyes and within a few seconds he was asleep.

"Wow," Celeste said and stroked Jason's head. "And I thought only my twin brothers are able to do this."

Clark smiled. "It was a big day for him," he explained. "I will take him to our bedroom and tuck him in."

His wife nodded and kissed the little boy on his cheek. "Sleep tight Jason."

"Hmmh," was all Jason could answer.

On the other side of the room, Lois had watched the whole little scene.

Unobtrusively, she wiped away a tear. _Oh my gosch_, she thought. _How must Clark have felt when I got married to Richard?_ The whole situation affected her more than she was willing to admit. It was so heartbreaking to see him with Celeste. And so adorable how the two of them treated Jason. Lois knew that her son was very lucky to have four parents now. She also knew that she needed all the help she could get to bring him up and to protect him from Lex Luthor who was still somewhere out there.

While she was deep in thoughts, her cell phone rung. "Honey where are you?" the person on the other side of the line asked very concerned after she had finally picked it up.

"Richard!" Lois shouted out in delight. She had totally forgotten to tell him where she was. "You wouldn't believe it. But Jason and I are in Sydney."

On the other side of the Globe, Richard was stunned. "How in the world did you get there?" he asked, releasing a long sight.

Lois just rolled her eyes and it occurred to Richard that this really was a stupid question.

"Right - Do you think it is a good idea to ask Superman to 'fly' you and Jason around the world to attend a co-workers wedding when you are eight month pregnant?"

Lois just smiled and whispered, "I love you!" into the phone.

* * *

Meanwhile, Celeste and Clark tucked Jason into their bed.

The little boy didn't even notice what happened to him. Smiling, he snuggled into the sheets. Clark sat down on the edge of the bed and watched him sleeping. A luxury he hadn't had since Richard and Lois had been married.

"Do you want to stay?" Celeste asked him.

Reluctantly Clark nodded. "If you don't mind?" he counter questioned.

His wife smiled and kissed the top of his head.

"Not at all."

* * *

Lois had excused herself to get some air after she had finished the phone call with her husband. She was still stunned and overwhelmed about the events of the last 24 hours. Her best friend, partner at the Daily Planet, farm boy from Kansas, and father of her son was Superman!

It was a lot to take in for her. Especially this, his marriage. Lois sighed. _I can't believe I asked him to be my Best Man_, she thought. _Of all the men in this world. How did he manage to cope with seeing me happy with Richard on that day? And I asked him to take care of Jason while we went into our Honeymoon. _The sheer thought of this fact sent shivers down her spine. What an irresponsible act from her. She could not hold back the tears anymore. She wasn't angry that he had wiped out her memories. By the look at it, she had really taken it bad the last time. She remembered how angry she had been when he had finally come back from his trip from Krypton almost two years ago. Now she was angry about herself. _What a bitch I was_, she thought._ Can I even imagine how he must have felt, coming back and realizing that I not only had won the Pulitzer for the article on why the world doesn't need Superman, but to also see that I was engaged and to top it all, had a son! And what did I do?_

"It's nice outside. Isn't it?"

Wincing, Lois turned around and realized that Celeste was standing next to her, watching the stars.

"I'm impressed. You can see the stars so much better here in Australia," Lois answered, wiping the remaining tears out of her eyes.

"Less smog than in Metropolis," Celeste tried to maintain the conversation.

"Probably," Lois responded. "Celeste, this was a very unusual wedding tonight."

The young woman smiled. "It fits to the man I married who is everything but ordinary."

It was an odd feeling for the two women to finally talk to each other with no secrets between them anymore.

Lois liked Celeste. _A lot_. She was very special and in Lois' eyes the perfect partner for Clark. The knowledge that he wasn't alone anymore calmed her down a bit.

"I am really happy for you two," she said sincerely.

"Thank you Lois," Celeste replied.

Lois turned to face the woman from Australia. "I want to tell you that I'm sorry how I treated you. Clark explained me everything and he stressed that you saved his life the day of the New Krypton incidence. I know why you couldn't tell Richard and me the truth and I want you to know that I understand now."

Celeste nodded. "It's okay Lois. I'm not angry. I was just sad that you treated me so disrespectfully."

Now Lois bit her thumb. "It wasn't okay and I really feel bad about it," she admitted as she looked into the ocean. "Celeste can I be honest with you?" the brunette asked a couple of minutes later.

"Go ahead," Celeste encouraged her to ask her question.

"When he told me everything about what happened, I realized that I still have feelings for him as in the father of my son."

The blonde woman next to her sighed. These two were really a hand full. _Maybe I should form a correlation with Richard to beat some sense into them,_ she thought.

"Lois. He _is_ Jason's father. It would be strange if you didn't have _any_ feelings for him."

Concerned, Lois looked into Celeste's eyes. "But are you okay with it?" she asked.

"I'm okay with it because Jason needs you both and there is no way I will get into your way in that matter."

"You sound a lot like Richard," Lois noticed.

"Well this should tell you something," Celeste teased Lois and smiled.

"Yes it does. That Clark and I are the luckiest people in the world," the brunette finally realized as she pulled Celeste Kent into a firm hug.

_THE END_

**A/N: My dear readers, I have updated my profile with some facts about **_**Dance of Love**_** …and the soundtrack ;)**

**I hope you enjoyed this unusual story and AU sequel to Superman Returns.**

**I want to thank all of my no-signed in readers, the readers who put my story on their story alert, favorite story alert, author alert, and my reviewers for taking this journey and sharing their thoughts with me. And last but not least **_**all **_**of my amazing betas I had for this story. Dance of Love wouldn't be the same without you!**

**If you are asking yourself now: What? Is the story already over? What about Lex Luthor? Is Jason safe? Will Lois and Richard have a boy or a girl? Are Celeste and Clark able to live happily ever after?**

…**Your questions will all be answered in the sequel to Dance of Love, **_**Passion of Love**_**, which I have already started to write and the first couple of chapters sent off to my betas…**

**Stay tuned! I will post it in the next couple of month in the M section of Superman fanfictions ;)**

**Morningdew-1**


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